MEDALS OF THE
JEWISH-AMERHCAINI
HALL OF FAME
1969-2019
By Mel Wacks
Copyright © 2020 by Mel Wacks
Printed in the United States of America
First Printing, 2020
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020900678
ISBN 978-1-7923-2948-7
Book design provided by Lianna Spurrier under sponsorship of Newman Numismatic Portal.
The text for this book may be found online at:
https://archive.0rg/details/JewishAmericanHallOfFameMedals2
This book is dedicated to members of my wonderful family:
Nathan Wacks z " L , Ben Wacks 2 " 1 , Belle Wacks 2 " 1 ,
Debra Wacks Ph.D., Shari Wacks,
Bella Wacks Spencer, and Landon Wacks Spencer.
Designed by Joel Iskowitz
assisted by Mel Wacks.
Thanks to these institutional leaders who have been of great help to
me, and who have championed the Jewish-American Hall of Fame:
Seymour Fromer, Founding Director of the Judah L. Magnes
Museum (1962-1998); Michael Feldberg Ph.D., Executive Director
of the American Jewish Historical Society (1991-2004); Jay Ipson,
Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Virginia Holocaust
Museum (1997-2012); and Abby Schwartz, Director of the
Cincinnati Skirball Museum (2013-).
Mel Wacks/1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction.4
Preface.5
1969, Judah Magnes (1877-1948), Founder Hebrew University, Medal by Victor Ries .6
1970, Albert Einstein (1879-1955), Theoretical physicist, Medal by Robert Russin .8
1971, Louis Brandeis (1856-1941), Supreme Court Justice, Medal byGerta Ries Wiener .10
1972, George Gershwin (1898-1937), Composer and pianist, Medal by Robert Russin .12
1973, Haym Salomon (1740-1785), Patriot and businessman, Medal by PaulVincze .14
1974, Herbert Lehman (1878-1963), Public servant, Medal by Jacques Schnier .16
1975, Gershom Seixas (1745-1816), Patriotic rabbi, Medal byGerta Ries Wiener .18
1976, Henrietta Szold (1860-1945), Founder of Hadassah & Hospital, Medal by Gerta Ries Wiener .20
1977, Touro Synagogue (1763), Oldest extant synagogue, Medal by Victor Ries .22
1978, Golda Meir (1898-1978), Israel Prime Minister, Medal byGerta Ries Wiener .24
1979, Levi Strauss (1829-1902), Clothing manufacturer, Medal by Hal Reed .26
1980, Jonas Salk (1914-1995), Developer of polio vaccine, Medal by Hal Reed .28
1981, Rebecca Gratz (1781-1869), Educator and philanthropist, Medal byGerta Ries Wiener .30
1982, Isaac Stern (1920-2001), Violin virtuoso, Medal byGerta Ries Wiener .32
1983, Emma Lazarus (1849-1887), “Statue of Liberty" poet, Medal by Gerta Ries Wiener .34
1984, Isaac B. Singer (1904-1991), Nobel laureate Yiddish writer, Medal by Robert Russin .36
1985, Adolph Ochs (1858-1935), NYTimes publisher, Medal by Gerta Ries Wiener .38
1986, Abravanel, Zacuto 8< Santangel (i486), Jews who helped Columbus, Medal by Paul Vincze .40
1987, Benjamin Cardozo (1870-1938), Supreme Court Justice, Medal by Gerta Ries Wiener .42
1988, Uriah P. Levy (1792-1862), Commodore US Navy, Medal by Hal Reed .44
1988, Irving Berlin (1888-1989), Songwriter and Broadway composer, Plaque by Marika Somogyi .46
1989, Benny Goodman (1909-1966), Clarinetist and “King of Swing, "Medal by Marika Somogyi .48
1990, Dr. Bela Schick (1877-1967), Developed test for diphtheria, Medal byGerta Ries Wiener .50
1991, Hank Greenberg (1911-1986) Baseball Hall ofFamer, Medal by Hal Reed .52
1992, Columbus & Torres (1492), Expulsion of Jews, Medal by PaulVincze .54
1993, Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990), Conductor, composer and teacher, Medal by Marika Somogyi .56
1994, Ernestine Rose (1810-1892), Advocate for women's rights, Medal by Gerta Ries Wiener .58
1995, ElieWiesel (1928-2016), Writer, lecturer and humanitarian, Medal by Alex Shagin .60
1996, Houdini (1874-1926), Magician and escape artist, Medal by Hal Reed .62
1997, Barbra Streisand (b. 1942), Singer, actress and director, Medal by Alex Shagin .64
1998, Ida & Isidore Straus and David Sarnoff (1912), Heroes of Titanic tragedy ; Medal by Alex Shagin .66
1.999, Asser Levy (1654), First Jews in America, Medal by Alex Shagin .68
2 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
2000, Arthur Miller (1915-2005), Playwright and author, Medal by Marika Somogyi .70
2001, Bess Myerson (1924-2014), Miss America and public servant, Medal by Alex Shagin .72
2002, Leopold Karpeles (1838-1909), Medal of Honor recipient, Medal by Alex Shagin .74
2003-4, Samuel Gompers (1850-1924) & Sidney Hillman (1887-1946) Labor leaders, Medal by Karen Worth .76
2005, Robert "Rosie" Rosenthal (1917-2007), World War II Flying "Ace," Medal by Jim Licaretz .78
2006, Moe Berg (1902-1972), Major League catcher and spy, Medal by Eugene Daub .80
2007, Lillian Wald (1867-1940), FounderVisiting Nurse Service, Medal by Virginia Janssen .82
2008, Milton Berle (1908-2002), "Mr. Television, "comedian and actor, Medal by Eugene Daub .84
2009, Mel Wacks (70th Birthday) & JAHF's 40th Anniversary, Medal by Eugene Daub .86
2010, Barney Ross (1909-1967), Boxing champion and war hero, Medal by Eugene Daub .88
2011, Gertrude Elion (1918-1999), Nobel Prize in Medicine, Medal by Daniel Altshuler .90
2012, Mordecai Noah (1785-1851), Writer, diplomat and Zionist, Medal by Eugene Daub .92
2013, Ruth Bader Ginsburg (b.1933), Supreme Court Justice, Medal by Eugene Daub .94
2014, Jacob Frankel (1808-1887) & Alexander Goode (1911-1943), Chaplains, Medal by Eugene Daub .96
2015, Gertrude Berg (1899-1966), Radio & television writer and actor, Medal by Eugene Daub .98
2016, Judith Resnik (1949-1986) and Jeffrey Hoffman (b.1944), Astronauts, Medal by Eugene Daub .100
2017, Joseph Pulitzer (1847-1911), Newspaper publisher & founder Pulitzer Prize, Medal by Eugene Daub .102
2018, Hedy Lamarr (1914-2000), Movie star and inventor, Medal by Eugene Daub .104
2019, Isaac MayerWise (1819-1900), Leader of Reform Judaism, Medal by Eugene Daub .106
About the Author, Mel Wacks.108
About the Medalists.110
Appendix A: Wooden Shekels Issued by the Magnes Museum and Jewish-American Hall of Fame.115
Appendix B: Special Commemorative Medals Issued by the Jewish-American Hall of Fame.118
Appendix C: How Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals are Made.136
Appendix D: Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medal Boxed Sets.141
Appendix E: Striking Medals — 50 Years of the Jewish-American Hall of Fame Exhibit.143
Appendix F: 2020, Dara Torres (b.1967), Medal by Eugene Daub .144
Index.146
Picture Credits.148
Mel Wacks/3
INTRODUCTION
In 1968, soon after Mel Wacks was appointed
as Numismatic Consultant to the Judah L. Magnes
Museum by its Director, Seymour Fromer, the first
numismatic issue — a modest one — was launched:
Wooden Shekels (see Appendix A).
Following the release of the Wooden
Shekels, the formation of the International Judaic
Commemorative Society was announced by Wacks.
But Joseph Milo, Director of the Israel Coins and
Medals Corporation complained that such a venture
would compete with their programs. And so, it was
decided that the Magnes Museum would "issue art
medals portraying events and personalities in Jewish-
American history/'Thus, the Jewish-American Hall of
Fame series of art medals was born.
The goal was not only to raise funds for the
Magnes Museum, but to raise awareness in Jews and
non-Jews alike in the substantial contributions made
to America — and the world — by American Jews.
The project was launched with a contribution of $500
from San Franciscan Julian Levin.
Mel Wacks, Director of the Jewish-American
Hall of Fame, chose each year's honoree, after
consultation with Seymour Fromer and others—until
2010, when an Advisory Council of Jewish historians
and organizational leaders was appointed to
determine future inductees. Members of the Council
included Diana Cohen Altman, former Director of the
Klutznick National Jewish Museum; Michael Feldberg
Ph.D., former Executive Director of the American
Jewish Historical Society; Gail Twersky Reimer Ph.D.,
Founding Director of the Jewish Women's Archive;
Daniel Mariaschin, Executive Vice President of B'nai
B'rith International; Richard Siegel, former Executive
Director of the Foundation for Jewish Culture; and
Mel Wacks. Abby Schwartz, Director of the Cincinnati
4 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
Skirball Museum joined the Advisory Council after
Siegel's untimely death in 2018.
Since 1969, over 25,000 Jewish-American Hall
of Fame medals have been issued — finding homes in
collections, museums, etc. around the world, as far
away as China — becoming the longest continuing
series of non-government art medals being issued in
the United States.
Dr. Alan Stahl, currently Curator of
Numismatics at Princeton University, wrote in
the catalog of the Federation Internationale de la
Medaille (1990, Helsinki) that the Jewish-American
Hall of Fame series was "[one of the most] important
series of medals in recent years."
Coin World columnist Jeff Starck, wrote in the
July 30, 2012 issue that "A notable achievement of
the series of [Jewish-American Hall of Fame] medals
is the sheer number of respected and famous artists
who have been commissioned."These have included
winners of the two most prestigious awards to
medalists — the American Numismatic Association's
Numismatic Art Award for Excellence in Medallic
Sculpture (Eugene Daub, Virginia Janssen, Jim
Licaretz, Hal Reed, Alex Shagin, Marika Somogyi,
Paul Vincze, Gerta Ries Wiener and Karen Worth),
and the American Numismatic Society's J. Sanford
Saltus Award forOutstanding Achievement in the Art
of the Medal (Eugene Daub, Alex Shagin and Karen
Worth).
The Jewish-American Hall of Fame expanded
to the Internet in 1997, in a website named
www.amuseum.org. The website features a virtual
tour through 500 years of American Jewish history,
illustrated by Jewish-American Hall of Fame medals,
quizzes about all of the honorees, and much more.
It won the Numismatic Literary Guild's award for
the Best Non-Commercial Web Site. In 2001, the
Jewish-American Hall of Fame became a Division of
the American Jewish Historical Society. Beginning
in 2010, the Jewish-American Hall of Fame plaques
went on permanent view at the Virginia Holocaust
Museum, in Richmond. And in 2019, the Jewish-
American Hall of Fame Medals Collection of the
Cincinnati Skirball Museum was established.
PREFACE
In his discussion of Series of American Medals,
on the website of Medal Collectors of America,
Dick Johnson writes: "The first public subscription
medal series began with the Circle of Friends of
the Medallion (1909-1915). But the grand dame of
all American medal series was — and still is —The
Society of Medalists (129 medals in all, 1930-1995)."
In this category, Dick also lists the medals issued by
the Hall of Fame for Great Americans, from 1962
through 1974, and by the Jewish-American Hall of
Fame, beginning in 1969.
Please note that all of these are "Art Medals,"
which generally are larger, have high relief, and have
antique patinas (finishes) — as opposed to the shiny
coin-size medals issued by the Franklin Mint and
their ilk.
So what is the attraction of collecting a
series of medals that are issued at the rate of one
or perhaps a few each year? Perhaps it is similar to
the appeal of popular characters who appear in an
author's book about once a year or a popular movie
theme and its sequels. It is the attraction of a familiar
theme and style that one
likes and looks forward to
seeing the latest version.
There is also the collecting
aspect — where collectors
have the desire to maintain
a complete set. Whatever
the reason, the Jewish-American Hall of Fame has
had the benefit of a loyal cadre of collectors who
support this project year after year.
Many of these people originally found out
about the Jewish-American Hall of Fame medals in
coin columns in their local newspapers, like the New
YorkTimes, Philadelphia Enquirer, etc. Unfortunately
these coin columns in newspapers have all but
disappeared. However, numismatic publications
have always supported us, and numerous articles
have appeared over the years in The Numismatist,
Coin World (see below) and Numismatic News.
More recently our medals have received publicity in
e-publications such as E-Sylum and CoinsWeekly.
If you didn't have the opportunity of buying
Jewish-American Hall of Fame medals when they
were issued, now you can try to acquire examples
that you like or to assemble a complete collection
by buying on eBay or from dealers. But it is not easy,
since mintages are very low — as few as 100 bronze,
55 pure silver, and a minuscule 8 gold-plated silver.
Remember, the fun is in the hunt!
\ LAYS & ANALYSIS
Jewish-American Hall of Fame medal
honors Hedy Lamarr
Celebrated actress from Vienna was
also an inventor during World War II
b) Chris BulMnc li.
The Jewish-America 11 Hall
of Fame has selected Hedy La¬
marr to appear on the 49th issue
of the organization's ongoing
medal series, according to Mel
Wacks. one of the organization’s
founders.
The Jewish-American Hall
of Fame was created in 19W as
part of the Magncs Museum, a
museum of Jin 1 'eH by
Seymour^. * ~
Collection of Jewish Art and
Life at The Bancroft Library af¬
ter it was absorbed by the Uni¬
versity of California in 2010.
The Hall of Fame, for its
part, became a division of the
American Jew ish Historical So¬
ciety in 2001 In 2012. its web¬
site was absorbed by the Ameri¬
can Numismatic Society
The JAHF’s n-
which has be-
-dal v
Actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr is depicted on the 49tl» medal in the Jewish
American HaU of Fame s senes cernmemorating the accompfehments of Jewish
American men and women in many fields
laagts cMrtny of Wk Aacncu Hall of f am
the United States in 1938. She
starred in many films from the
file 1930s into the 1950s.
narr was often de- Hb
’Vorid’s •
the 1960s. Those technologies
bid the foundation for many
telecommunications products
■••e use today.
The JAHF mr»
ononn*-
Mel Wacks/5
JAHF1 /1369
JUDAH L. MAGNES
1877 -1948
Medalist: Victor Ries
Obverse: Library of Hebrew University and Shrine of the Book; JUDAH L. MAGNES (English and
Hebrew), VR, 1877-1948.
Reverse: SEEKTRUTH WITHOUT FEAR.
Judah Leon Magnes was born in San
Francisco, and grew up in Oakland, California. He
later became the first native Californian to receive
a rabbinical degree from the Hebrew Union College
in Cincinnati. Magnes went on to serve at Temple
Israel in Brooklyn (1904) and at Temple Emanu-El
in New York City (1908), one of the most influential
positions in American Reform Jewry. A few years
later, Magnes headed the conservative Congregation
B'nai Jeshurun.
In 1909, Magnes founded the Kehillah, a
union of diverse Jewish communal organizations
in New York City. He remained its president during
the entire time of its existence, through 1922, and is
credited with changing the emphasis from charities
to social work. With seemingly boundless energy,
Magnes also helped to found the Yiddish daily "Der
Tag," the Society for the Advancement of Judaism,
the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Joint
Distribution Committee. He was Secretary of the
Federation of American Zionists and a lifelong friend
6 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
of Henrietta Szold, with whom he helped turn a small
women's social group into the world's largest Zionist
organization — Hadassah.
ProbablyJudah L. Magnes' greatest work was
done on behalf of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem,
of which he was a founder and the first president. Dr.
Magnes is given much of the credit for making the
University the world-renowned institution that it is
today.
Magnes was an outspoken leader in the
campaignforthe establishment of a Jewish homeland.
His compassion for people — all people — led him to
appeal for a bi-national state of Jews and Arabs. He
has been called the "Jewish Gandhi" because of his
constant work on behalf of both independence and
harmony in the Holy Land. Just before the United
Nations made its momentous decision establishing
the State of Israel, Magnes spoke before the world
body. Unfortunately, he became ill shortly after, and
was buried in his beloved Jerusalem.
46 x45 mm / Medallic Art Company
585 Bronze / 265 Pure Silver / 8 Gold-Plated Pure Silver
THE BACK STORY
1 617
/OUDAM-IA
iMAGNETS)
I9i*$ .
Victor Ries
proposed
a number
of different
possible
designs in the
usual round
shape.
Ries also
sketched
several possible
obverse designs
using a rounded
trapezoidal
shape.
The final
designs used
the rounded
trapezoidal
shape,
although it was
inverted from
the original
drawings.
MelWacks/7
JAHF2 /1970
ALBERT EINSTEIN
1879 -1955
Medalist: Robert Russin
Obverse: Portrait, RUSSIN.
Reverse: Peace symbol within the umbra of a solar eclipse, THE HIGHEST RELIGION ISTHE
SERVICE OF HUMANITY, Albert Einstein (signature) 1979-1955.
Born in the German town of Ulm, Albert
Einstein spent his early youth in Munich. While
attending Zurich Polytechnic Institute he became a
Swiss citizen. After graduating in 1890, he took a post
at the Swiss Patent Office in Berne and carried out
experiments on his own time. In 1905, he published
three scientific papers, including one that would
make his name a household word — the Special
History of Relativity. Einstein demonstrated that
motion is relative and that physical laws must be the
same for all observers moving relative to each other.
In addition, his famous equation E=mc 2 showed that
mass and energy are equivalent. He received the
Nobel Prize for physics in 1921 for his explanation of
the photoelectic effect.
Another paper, published in 1920, predicted
that large masses would deflect planets or light
rays from their paths; this was proven correct when
it was shown that starlight was deflected by the
gravitational field of the sun during a total eclipse of
the sun in 1919.
Einstein's interests were not confined to his
research alone. His friend and collaborator Dr. Otto
Nathan writes: "Except for his devotion to science,
8 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
no cause was more important or closer to his heart
than the determination that the institution of war be
forever abolished."
Einstein advocated a United Europe in 1914,
and welcomed the establishment of the League
of Nations in 1919 and the United Nations in 1945.
He was also deeply concerned with Jewish affairs,
and devoted his active interest to the creation of
Brandeis University. Also, Einstein was convinced
that the cultural survival of the Jews depended on
the establishment of their own national homeland
— Israel — with peaceful coexistence between Arabs
and Jews necessary for success.
After the death of Chaim Weizmann, when
Einstein was asked if he would accept the presidency
of Israel, the 73 year old scientist wrote: "I am deeply
moved by the offer from our State of Israel, and at
once saddened and ashamed that I cannot accept it. I
am the more distressed ... because my relationship to
the Jewish people has become my strongest human
bond, ever since I became aware of our precarious
situation among the nations of the world."
46 x45 mm / Medallic Art Company
810 Bronze / 290 Pure Silver / 8 Gold-Plated Pure Silver
100 nickel-silver medals were embedded in lucite forthe
Alumni Association of Einstein College.
THE BACK STORY
Professor Robert Russin working on the clay model of Einstein's portrait, and that
model in an interim stage.
Early stage of the reverse. Note that the peace symbol was later reduced in size. At
Russin's request, Medallic Art Company added the reverse inscription.
MelWacks/g
JAHF3 /1371
LOUIS D. BRANDEIS
1856 -1941
Medalist: Gerta Ries Wiener
Obverse: Portrait; JUSTICE LOUIS BRANDEIS 1856-1941, Gerta Wiener.
Reverse: MAKE REALTHE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN.
In 1916, Louis Brandeis' nomination to the
Supreme Court, by President Woodrow Wilson,
aroused much consternation in some circles; even
the staid Wall Street Journal called him a "rabid ...
super-extreme ... anti-corporation agitator." Anti-
Semitism also raised its ugly head with the first Jewish
nominee to the High Court. However, Brandeis had
the support of the people, as his nickname ("The
People's Lawyer") revealed, for his crusades on
behalf of consumer protection and women's rights,
and against monopolistic practices.
While Brandeis won fame as a dissenter on
the bench, he was actually in the majority far more
often than the minority. His dissenting opinions
were of quality not quantity. However, these were
highly significant because, in stating his belief in the
"living law," in many instances Brandeis stated the
law as it was yet to be. In a speech made to a Boston
audience in 1914, Justice Brandeis stated: "America's
fundamental law seeks to make real the brotherhood
of man. America's insistent demand in the twentieth
century is for social justice."
When World War I broke out, Brandeis agreed
to serve as Chairman of the Provisional Committee
for General Zionist Affairs. "My approach to Zion ism,"
he said, "was through Americanism. Gradually it
became clear to me that to be good Americans we
must be better Jews, and to be better Jews we must
become Zionists."
Brandeis' close relations with President
Wilson and high administrative officials played an
important part in securing support for the Balfour
Declaration, whereby Great Britain "views with
favour the establishment in Palestine of a national
home for the Jewish people."
45 x43 mm / Medallic Art Company
430 Bronze / 220 Pure Silver / 8 Gold-Plated Pure Silver
(Mintages have been determined, as accurately as
possible, from original records.)
10 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
THE BACK STORY
Victor Ries was asked to design the medal
honoring Louis Brandeis, but since he did not sculpt
portraits, he asked his sister, Gerta Ries Wiener,
to take over the assignment — in spite of the fact
that she had never before designed a medal. This
was serendipity, since Gerta Ries Wiener went on to
sculptatotal of eleven Jewish-American Hall of Fame
medals.
On April 9, 1971 Gerta Ries Wiener sent Mel
Wacks the above photos with the note: "This is
the plasticene version and will be sharpened in the
plaster of Paris." Later that month, Wiener wrote:
"It is, of course, always a challenge to have to do a
good portrait of a person you have never seen and
1 J'Jjf'C
A.© ' 1 l?
A//
will never be able to see — painting or sculpture — as
a portrait is, or should be much more than a literal
rendition of features. I had to rely on whatever kind of
photos of his head I could obtain, and they were none
too good for my purpose. They showed him either
too young or too old, and had the lack of character of
many newspaper portraits of prominent people. But
having a strong mental image of the man from what
he had been and said helped me, I hope, to express
some of his personality through my work."
Gerta Ries Wiener's letters to Mel Wacks are
now in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution's
Archives of American Art.
/ y\] r „ fit/ 1
1 'Ut '
PAoMMoop
0 f Mf\/]
Victor Ries was not happy with his sister's designs; in a letter dated May 24, 1971 from Seymour
Fromerthat included the above sketch by Fromer, Director of the Judah Magnes Museum, Victor suggested:
"removing the heavy lines and moving the words THE and OF MAN to the left or off center." Ries also
suggested "to move the face (of Brandeis) to the right ...As it stands now the middle is not acceptable." Gerta
Ries Wiener did not make these changes.
Mel Wacks/11
JAHF4 /1972
GEORGE GERSHWIN
1898 -1937
Medalist: Robert Russin
Obverse: Portrait, RUSSIN.
Reverse: Gershwin's hands on piano keyboard, JAZZ ISTHE RESULT OF ENERGY STORED IN
AMERICA, George Gershwin (signature) 1898-1937.
George Gershwin was a very normal boy —
he was the undisputed roller skating champion of
his neighborhood on the Lower East Side of New
York. He even felt that youngsters who went in for
music were sissies. But one day a young violinist,
Max Rosen, played for his fellow classmates at PS 25.
George had not been interested enough to attend
the performance, but heard it through the assembly
hall window. Gershwin later wrote: "It was, to me, a
flashing revelation of beauty."
Max opened the world of music to George,
and George taught Max wrestling. One climactic day,
his friend told George that he had better give up all
thoughts of a musical career, saying "You haven't it in
you; take my word for it." Fortunately for American
music, George ignored his friend's advice.
Gershwin wrote his first songs while working
as a pianist with a music publishing firm; and his first
revue Half Past Eight opened in 1918.
George Gershwin tragically did not live to
be 40, but his music will live forever. He was equally
at home writing "pop" tunes, such as Swanee, The
Man I Love, 'S Wonderful, and I Got Rhythm; musical
comedies like Oh Kay, Girl Crazy, and Of Thee I Sing;
serious music: Rhapsody in Blue, Concerto in F, and
An American in Paris; and he even pioneered in
creating a genuine American folk opera: Porgy and
Bess. Most of the lyrics for his revues and songs were
written by his brother Ira (1896-1983).
Rhapsody in Blue, commissioned by Paul
Whiteman as a "jazz symphony," made jazz
respectable for the American concert stage after
it was performed in New York in 1924 — and it
made Gershwin famous. In less than two decades
of productivity, George Gershwin left an indelible
impression upon his country's culture.
46 x45 mm / Medallic Art Company
450 Bronze / 250 Pure Silver / 8 Gold-Plated Pure Silver
12 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
THE BACK STORY
Professor Russin near the
completion of Gershwin's
portrait in clay.
Russin making final adjustments
to reverse plaster. Note that
lettering has been touched up
in photo to make inscription
clearer.
Mel Wacks /13
JAHF5 /1373
HAYM SALOMON
1740 -1785
Medalist: PaulVincze
Obverse: Portrait, PROCLAIM LIBERTY THROUGHOUT ALLTHE LAND (LEV. 25:10) • HAYM
SALOMON 1740-1785, P.VINCZE.
Reverse: Salomon writing, with American cavalry in background, 1776 in exergue, P. VINCZE.
In the early 1770's, Haym Salomon left his
family in Poland and arrived in New York on the eve
of the Revolution. His command of German made
him welcome to the Hessian forces, which he served
as a supplier of goods. When the British suspected
him of spying, Salomon was arrested and confined to
prison fora time.
Salomon's command of several languages
enabled him to serve as a brokertothe French officials
in Philadelphia. Salomon prospered and was able to
be financially helpful to a number of public figures,
such as Alexander Hamilton and James Madison. In
1782, Madison acknowledged the "kindness of our
little friend in Front Street, whose assistance will
preserve me from extremities but I never resort to it
without great mortification as he obstinately rejects
all recompense."
When Haym Salomon died prematurely
in January 1785, he held $353,000 — largely in
depreciated certificates of indebtedness and
continental currency — all virtually worthless.
The Pennsylvania Packet wrote "He was
remarkable for his skill and integrity in his profession
and for his generous and humane deportment."
Haym Salomon was actively involved in Jewish
community affairs. He was a memberof Mikveh Israel
Congregation in Philadelphia, and made the largest
single contribution to the erection of its first building
in 1782. The following year, Salomon joined with other
prominent Jews in an address to the Pennsylvania
Council of Censors, urging them to remove the
religious test oath required for office holding under
the State Constitution. And in 1784, he responded to
a personal slander in the press by proclaiming: "I am
a Jew; it is my own nation ... I do not despair... that
we shall obtain every other privilege that we aspire to
enjoy along with our fellow-citizens."
Extracted from a paper by Dr. Samuel
Rezneck, Professor Emeritus of History, Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute.
58 mm / Medallic Art Company
950 Bronze / 440 Pure Silver / 8 Gold-Plated Pure Silver
14 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
THE BACK STORY
Original plaster model had error of "LEV. 52:10" — which was corrected to "LEV.
25:10" — before medals were struck.
Stamp-like labels issued to raise funds for the Jewish War Veterans of the U.S.A. were
based on the Jewish-American Hall of Fame's Haym Salomon medal.
HAYM SALOMON 1740-1785
JEWISH WAR VETERANS of the U.S.A.
Mel Wacks /15
JAHF6 /1374
HERBERT H. LEHMAN
1878 -1963
Medalist: Jacques Schnier
Obverse: Portrait, HERBERT H. LEHMAN 1878-1963.
Reverse: Tzadik (Hebrew: righteous one) within Star of David, TO DO JUSTLY, LOVE MERCY,
AND WALK HUMBLYWITHTHYGOD, MIC. 6:8, JS monogram.
Upon graduation from Williams College in
1899, Herbert Henry Lehman joined his father's
investment banking firm — Lehman Brothers. He
began a long career in public service when he was
commissioned as a captain in the War Department
Ordnance Bureau during World War I, where he
eventually rose to the rank of colonel in the War
Claims Board. After several visits to devastated
Europe, he helped found the American Jewish Joint
Distribution Committee.
Lehman became active in politics, and was
elected as Lieutenant Governor of New York, with
Franklin Delano Roosevelt as Governor, in 1928. He
was Roosevelt's right hand man, and was elected
Governor in 1932 by an unprecedented plurality of
close to a million votes. Lehman fought for a wide
range of minimum wage, social security and general
welfare bills during and following the Depression —
and was reelected four more times. He resigned in
1942 to become head of the newly formed United
Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration,
whose task was to minister to the war-torn civilian
16 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
populations of the former Axis-occupied areas.
England's Noel-Baker gave Lehman the following
testimonial: "No tougher assignment was ever faced
by any man. He has carried it through. His greatest
service has been the moral authority which he has
established with the governments and the peoples of
the world."
At the age of 72, Herbert H. Lehman took
on another major public service — as New York's
Senator. In Congress, he courageously crusaded
against McCarthyism and restrictive immigration
quotas. This immigrant's son eloquently spoke
before the President's Commission on Immigration
and Naturalization in 1952, saying: "This [quota]
system is based on the same discredited racial
theories from which Adolph Hitler developed the
infamous Nuremberg Laws. It is the complete denial
of Americanism. To defend ourselves against the
evil implications of this concept we recently fought
a great war... and sacrificed hundreds of thousands
of American lives, including untold numbers whose
names were not Smith, Brown or Jones."
47 x45 mm / Medallic Art Company
450 Bronze / 240 Pure Silver / 8 Gold-Plated Pure Silver
THE BACK STORY
Jacques Schnier holds the plaster model for the
1936 Bay Bridge Commemorative Half Dollar,
the only other numismatic item that he created
besides the Herbert H. Lehman medal.
The 1936 Bay Bridge
Commemorative Half Dollar.
Mel Wacks/17
JAHF7 /1975
GERSHOM MENDES SEIXAS
1745 -1816
Medalist: Gerta Ries Wiener
Obverse: Portrait, Gershom Seixas (script) 1745-1816.
Reverse: Seixas leading congregants out of Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue (New York), carrying
ceremonial objects, Gerta Wiener.
In late August, 1776, when news came that the
British were approaching New York, Rabbi Gershom
Mendes Seixas of Congregation Shearith Israel (The
Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue) decided to close
the synagogue rather than keep it open under British
rule.
There were many men in America's oldest
congregation who had been so outspoken against
the Crown, that their lives would have been in
jeopardy. Seixas saw to it that all of the ceremonial
objects — the scrolls, prayer books and candlesticks
— were taken away for safekeeping. At the close of
the Revolutionary War, Reverend Seixas returned all
of these items to the congregation, where they can
be seen to this day.
Seixas not only fought the British, but fought
intolerance as well. In 1783, he successfully sought
revisions in a constitutional clause, newly adopted
by the Pennsylvania legislature, requiring a religious
examination foroffice seekers. He was one of fourteen
clergymen participating in George Washington's first
inaugural (1787), and continued to be one of the most
vigorous defenders of the much-maligned James
Madison administration during the War of 1812.
Gershom Mendes Seixas, the first native-
born Jewish minister in the United States, was also
active as a trustee in the Humane Society and as one
of the first Regents of the New York State University.
He was also the only non-Episcopalian to serve as a
trustee of Columbia University, from 1787 to 1815.
The Seixas family has contributed many
prominent Americans—Gershom's brother, Abraham
Mendes (1751-99), was an officer in the Revolutionary
Army; another brother, Benjamin Mendes (1748-
1817), was one of the founders of the New York Stock
Exchange; and a third brother, Moses Mendes (1744-
1809), was one of the organizers of the Bank of Rhode
Island and the president of the historic Newport
Synagogue. Gershom's son, David, established the
Deaf and Dumb Institute in Philadelphia, and was
among the first to discover efficient ways of burning
anthracite coal.
18 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
47x45 mm / Medallic Art Company
250 Bronze / 205 Pure Silver
THE BACK STORY
Gerta Ries
Wiener
sketched
examples
of colonial
clothing while
doing research
for the reverse
design of the
Gershom
Mendes Seixas
medal.
Wiener's
preliminary
sketches for
the reverse of
the Gershom
Mendes Seixas
medal.
Mel Wacks/19
JAHF8 /1376
HENRIETTA SZOLD
1860 -1845
Medalist: Gerta Ries Wiener
Obverse: Portrait, HENRIETTA SZOLD 1860-1945, Gerta Wiener.
Reverse: Szold with children in Youth Aliya program, MAKE MINE EYES LOOKTOWARDSTHE
FUTURE «THE HEALING OFTHE DAUGHTER OF MY PEOPLE (Hebrew).
Henrietta Szold was born in Baltimore,
Maryland in i860, a little more than a year after
her parents arrived from Hungary. Her father, a
prominent rabbi, gave Henrietta the attention and
education usually reserved for an eldest son. She
learned German, English, French and Hebrew. In
1899, she took on the lion's share of producing the
first American Jewish Year Book, for which Szold was
the sole editor from 1904 to 1908.
In 1909, Ms. Szold first visited Palestine.
During hertourshe was impressed both by the beauty
of the land and the misery and disease among the
people. And so, with the support of Rabbi Judah L.
Magnes, she formed Hadassah in 1912. Within a year,
the fledgling organization had two American nurses
in Jerusalem. Today, Hadassah's great hospitals in
Jerusalem are world famous, treating over 25,000
patients and handling over 1.5 million medical tests
annually, for Jews and Arabs alike.
The Henrietta Szold-Hadassah School of
Nursing has trained over 1,500 nurses, and the
Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School has
graduated more than 1,300 doctors.
In 1933, at the age of 73, Szold embarked on a
major new project, rescuing Jewish children from the
oncoming Holocaust. Despite obstacles in dealing
with the British Mandate government in Palestine,
by 1948 her Youth Aliya program had brought 30,000
children from troubled Europe to Palestine. Even
at the age of 81, Henrietta Szold accepted a new
challenge — planning the Fund for Child and Youth
Care.
Today, Hadassah's third of a million members
and 1,350 chapters around the world make it one
of the largest philanthropic organizations, as well
as a living tribute to the hard work and vision of its
founder, Henrietta Szold.
20 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
47x45 mm / Medallic Art Company
300 Bronze / 180 Pure Silver
THE BACK STORY
Wiener indicated that "[Szold] looks serious but with a little smile, as I imagine she may have looked.
As she was a writer I think that the book is a good touch." Henrietta Szold's hands were enlarged from the
clay version by the time sculptress Gerta Ries Wiener had cast the plaster model, and other changes were
made. The mint made an additional unauthorized change when they extended the areas below and to the
left and right sides of the book.
After Ms. Wiener thought that she had
completed the plaster models, an officer of
Hadassah asked her to add the organization's
motto in Hebrew "The healing of the daughter of
my people," which Wiener reluctantly did.
MelWacks/21
JAHF9 /1977
TOURO SYNAGOGUE
1763
Medalist: Victor Ries
Obverse: Touro Synagogue, NATIONAL • HISTORIC • SITE ‘TOURO • SYNAGOGUE •
NEWPORT • RHODE • ISLAND • DEDICATED • 1763, VR monogram.
Reverse: Torah crowns and rimonim, THE UNITED STATES GIVES TO BIGOTRY NO SANCTION,
TO PERSECUTION NO ASSISTANCE • GEORGE WASHINGTON.
On August 31,1947, the National Park Service
of the United States Department of the Interior
unveiled a bronze tablet designating the Touro
Synagogue of Newport, Rhode Island as a National
Historic Shrine. This handsome colonial building is
the oldest standing synagogue in the United States.
It was designed by Peter Harrison, who combined his
Georgian Colonial style with thetraditional synagogue
architecture of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews.
The Reverend Ezra Styles described the building
as "the most perfect of the Temple kind perhaps in
America," when he attended its dedication in 1763.
President George Washington visited
Newport on August 17,1790 when he was presented
with a letter from Moses Seixas, President of the
Congregation, extolling the new government,
"which to bigotry gives no sanction, to persecution
no assistance." In his reply, Washington repeated this
moving phrase, which has been credited to him ever
since.
22 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
President Truman wrote to the Congregation
in 1947, saying: "The setting apart of this historic
shrine as a national monument is symbolic of
our tradition of freedom, which has inspired men
and women of every creed, race and ancestry to
contribute their highest gifts to the development of
our national culture."
Isaac Touro, native of Holland, was appointed
Hazan (Minister) of Yeshuat Israel Congregation
even before construction began in 1759. He served
as spiritual leader until the British occupied Newport
in December 1776, after which most of the Jews left,
relinquishing much of their wealth.
Isaac Touro's son, Judah, born on June 16,
1775, was raised by his uncle in Boston. In 1801,
Judah sought his fortune in New Orleans, where he
prospered as a merchant. He served as a volunteer
in the American Army at the Battle of New Orleans
(1815), where he was severely wounded. Judah Touro's
real claim to fame was the generosity of the bequests
47 x45 mm / Roger Williams Mint
250 Bronze / 180 Pure Silver / i5l4ktGold
made in his will. He donated a total of $143,000 to
congregations, schools, and other Jewish institutions
in seventeen cities throughout America, including
$10,000 to the Congregation in Newport, henceforth
known as the Touro Synaggogue.
Judah Touro's gifts to non-Jewish institutions
in New Orleans, Boston and Newport totaled
an additional $153,000. Another bequest, from
his brother, Abraham, was used to erect Touro
Synagogue's front gate in 1843.
THE BACK STORY
Initially, the interior of the Touro
Synagogue was to appear on the medal. However,
in a letter dated October 22, 1976 to Mel Wacks,
Director of the Jewish-American Hall of Fame,
Ries writes: "The inside of the synagogue is the
trouble spot. I hammered this the way I did with
the toroth [reverse design]. It looked lousy, so I
destroyed it. I called Mr. Fromer (Director of the
Magnes Museum)... and we both decided to drop
it and use the outside of theTemple." Wacks wrote
on October 30 to Ries saying it was "okay if you
use the exterior," and asked "Could I possibly see
a sketch of your design?" That sketch is shown to
the right.
Ries based his reverse design on these
Rimonim, pictured on a postcard published by
Society of Friends of Touro Synagogue. The text
indicates that "Two sets of Rimonim are the
work of Myer Myers, New York, famous colonial
silversmith."
Mel Wacks / 23
JAHF10 /1978
GOLDA MEIR
1898 -1978
Medalist: Gerta Ries Wiener
Obverse: Portrait, IN HONOR OF HER 8o • BIRTHDAY MAY 31978 • Golda Meir (signature).
Reverse: Group of men and women of different religions and sects living in Israel, LET ALL OF
US—UNITED—FIGHT POVERTY AND DISEASE AND ILLITERACY, Gerta Wiener.
Born in Kiev, Russia, Golda Mabovitch's family
emigrated to the United States, settling in Milwaukee
in 1906. From the time, at the age of ten, that she
organized the American Young Sisters' Society to
provide textbooks for the needy school children,
Golda dedicated her life to solving the problems of
others.
An avowed Zionist since she settled in
a kibbutz in Palestine with her husband, Morris
Myerson, in 1921, Golda soon became involved in
political activities. She served as an emissary to the
Pioneer Women's Organization in the United States
from 1932-4, and after her return to Palestine, joined
the Executive Committee of the Histadrut, the
General Federation of Israel Labor. Golda soon rose
to become head of Histadrut's Political Department,
and in 1946 served in the same role for the Jewish
Agency until the establishment of the State of Israel
two years later.
Golda's perilous secret meeting with King
Abdul-lah of Jordan, just before the Arab invasion
was a dramatic attempt for last minute conciliation.
24 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
David Ben-Gurion appointed Golda as
Ministerto Moscow, and in 1949 she became Minister
of Labor. She initiated large scale housing and road¬
building programs, and vigorously supported the
policy of unrestricted immigration.
It was not until Golda was appointed Foreign
Minister, that she Hebraized her last name to Meir,
at the behest of Ben-Gurion. As Foreign Minister
(1956-1965), Golda was often Israel's spokesperson
at the United Nations, where she pleaded for all of
those who call the Holy Land home to "united, fight
poverty and disease and illiteracy."
After the death of Levi Eshkol in 1969,
Golda Meir became the fourth Prime Minister of
Israel. Originally thought to have been a stop-gap
appointment, she went on to lead her party to victory
in the next election, and continued to carry on indirect
negotiations with Egypt through the outbreak of the
Yom Kippur War in 1973.
Despite her eminence, she was called simply
"Golda" to everyone in Israel and on her frequent
travels around the world.
47 x45 mm / Roger Williams Mint
465 Bronze / 245 Pure Silver / 25l4ktGold
THE BACK STORY
Gerta Ries Wiener sent Mel Wacks rough sketches of the
Golda Meir medal designs in her letters.
Early plaster model, which later was modified.
Mel Wacks / 25
JAHF11 /1979
LEVI STRAUSS
1829 -1902
Medalist: Hal Reed
Obverse: Portrait, Everyone knows his first name, Levi Strauss (signature), HR monogram.
Reverse: Woodchopper, cowboy on horse, and gold panner, Levi's logo.
Levi Strauss was 17 years old when he
emigrated from Bavaria to New York in 1847. He
worked for his two brothers, peddling clothing and
household items throughout towns and villages
in rural New York and Kentucky. Spurred on by
exciting tales of opportunities for instant wealth
in the California Gold Rush,, Strauss sailed to San
Francisco on a clipper ship in 1850, loaded with
canvas for tents and wagons. But after a short visit to
the gold country, he realized there was a better use
for the durable material. He took his unsold canvas
to a tailor and had them fashioned into overalls. He
later switched from canvas to a tough cotton fabric
loomed in Nimes, France — called serge de Nimes
(denim).
In the 1860s Jacob Davis, a tailor in Carson
City, Nevada, began riveting the pocket corners on
miner's pants for added strength. Strauss liked the
idea, and jointly with Davis applied for a patent,
which was granted in 1873.
Strauss was a very generous man; in 1897
he contributed 28 perpetual scholarships to the
University of California. Upon his death in 1902, he
bequeathed tens of thousands of dollars to charitable
institutions such as the Pacific Hebrew Orphan
Asylum, Home for Aged Israelites, as well as to
Roman Catholic and Protestant orphanages.
During World War II, Levi's® were declared an
essential commodity and were sold only to people
engaged in defense work. Following the war, there
was such an overwhelming demand for Levi's® that
deliveries had to be rationed for almost two years.
Today Levi Strauss & Co. is one of the largest apparel
manufacturers in the world. The company's motto,
"Everyone knows his first name," refers to the fact
that Levi's® has entered the world's vocabulary as a
generic term for blue jeans.
Extracted from a brochure published by Levi
Strauss & Co., San Francisco.
26 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
47 x45 mm / Metal Arts
400 Bronze / 180 Pure Silver / 2810ktGold
THE BACK STORY
United States Patent Office.
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Original patent granted to Jacob Davis on May 10,1873 in behalf of himself and Levi
Strauss & Company of San Francisco, California.
Final plaster models for the Levi Strauss medal. Permission was obtained from Levi
Strauss and Company to reproduce their logo on the medal's reverse.
Mel Wacks / 27
JAHF12 /1980
JONAS SALK
1914 -1995
Medalist: Hal Reed
Obverse: Portrait, Jonas Salk (signature).
Reverse Polio victim on crutches watches two boys playing with balls; Salk Institute in
background; 1979 Hal Reed.
Jonas Edward Salk was born in New York
City on October 28, 1914. After graduating from
the City College of New York, he went on to be a
research fellow at the University of Michigan. There
he helped in the development of an influenza vaccine
and served as a member of the U.S. Army Influenza
Commission. Moving to the University of Pittsburgh's
School of Medicine, Salk became Research Professor
of Bacteriology in 1949, Professor of Preventive
Medicine 5 years later, and finally Professor of
Experimental Medicine (1957-1963).
At the University of Pittsburgh, Salk did
research into poliomyelitis, developing immunological
methods to distinguish different types of the virus.
He then developed a vaccine prepared by inactivating
the virus. Massive field trials conducted by the
National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis in 1954,
confirmed the effectiveness of the vaccine, which
became the first weapon against the polio scourge.
In the years immediately before mass inoculations
with the Salk vaccine began, there was an average
of 25,000 cases a year in the United States. In 1969
28 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
not a single death from polio was reported in the
nation, and the disease has virtually been eradicated
worldwide. For his pioneering accomplishment, Dr.
Salk received many honors and awards, including the
47 x45 mm / Metal Arts
300 Bronze / 30 Pewter / 110 Pure Silver / 35 lOkt Gold
the World Health Organization in 1961, and two years
later founded the Salk Institute for Biological Studies
at La Jolla, California, which he directed until his
death. The Salk Institute is one of the world's major
independent centers of biological research, with an
annual budget of over 12 million dollars and a staff of
over 400. It is an architectural masterpiece by Louis
Kahn. One of the great strengths of this "Athens of
the Pacific" is the enhanced insight that arises from
the interdisciplinary approach to problems and from
the exchange of ideas of scientists from all over the
world.
THE BACK STORY
Mel Wacks / 29
JAHF13 /1381
REBECCA GRATZ
1781 -1869
Medalist: Gerta Ries Wiener
Obverse: Portrait, R Gratz (signature), Gerta Wiener.
Reverse: Rebecca Gratz 1781-1869, "WERE VIRTUE AND RELIGION DEAD, SHE'D MAKETHEM
NEWLY, BEING WHAT SHE WAS."
Bernard Gratz (1738-1801) emigrated to
America from Poland, via England, in 1754. Along
with other merchants, he signed Non-Importation
Agreements to boycott British goods during the
Stamp Act and Townshend Act crises prior to the
Revolution. The Gratz family wholeheartedly
supported the American patriots, and supplied
goods to the Continental Army. Bernard and his
younger brother, Michael, helped found one of the
first synagogues in America, which in 1773 evolved
into Philadelphia's Congregation Mikveh Israel.
Afterthe War, the Gratzes became involved in
a successful struggle for equal rights in Pennsylvania.
Michael's son Hyman founded Gratz College, but
it was his daughter who is the "jewel of the Gratz
dynasty."
Rebecca Gratz achieved literary immortality
when, after hearing of her charm, beauty and
goodness, Sir Walter Scott introduced a Jewish
female character into the work that was then in
progress. He even named the heroine (of Ivanhoe)
30 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
"Rebecca."
While she never married, Rebecca Gratz
made a home for her unmarried brothers, and
reared the nine orphaned children of her sister
Rachel Moses. In her twenty-first year, she became
secretary for the Female Association for the Relief of
Women and Children in Reduced Circumstances, and
in 1815 Rebecca was a founder of the Philadelphia
Orphan Society. But, perhaps her most significant
accomplishment was the founding of the Hebrew
Sunday School Society, the first of its kind in America,
and the model for all Jewish education in America.
After her death in 1869, at the age of 88,
Rebecca Gratz was mourned as one of the foremost
women in America. Rabbi David Philipson wrote inthe
introduction to the Letters of Rebecca Gratz: "She is
not unworthy of having applied to her the exquisite
words used of a rare woman by George Elliot, that
'were all virtue and religion dead, she'd make them
newly, being what she was.'" And those are the words
inscribed on the reverse of the Rebecca Gratz medal.
47 x45 mm / Metal Arts
330 Bronze / 45 Pewter / 110 Pure Silver / 2ol0ktGold
THE BACK STORY
Gerta Ries
Wiener's
preliminary
sketch for the
Gratz medal
featured a
different quote
on the reverse.
Rebecca in
Ivanhoe as
pictured in the
first edition
by Albert
Henry Payne,
1851, and as
portrayed by
Elizabeth Taylor
in the 1952
movie.
Meiwacks/31
JAHF14 /1982
ISAAC STERN
1920 - 2001
Medalist: Gerta Ries Wiener
Obverse: Portrait of Stern playing his 1740 Guarneri, Gerta Wiener.
Reverse: Marquee of Carnegie Hall.
Virtuoso violinist Isaac Stern was born in
Kreminiesz, Russia on July 21,1920. When just a year
old, his family emigrated to the United States and
settled in San Francisco. Stern took up the violin at
the age of eight, and within three years was a soloist
with the San Francisco Symphony.
Stern's memorable Carnegie Hall debut was
made in 1943. In i960, thanks largely to his efforts,
historic Carnegie Hall (opened May 5, 1891) was
saved from demolition — and he continued to serve
as its president for over three decades.
Isaac Stern has appeared in concerts
throughout the world, playing his 1740 Guarneri,
gaining recognition as an unofficial "United States
Musical Ambassador." Antonio Stradivari made
about 1,100 violins during his lifetime, in the 17th and
32 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
early 18th centuries, of which about 550 survive. But
the instrument preferred by Stern is one of just 150
violins made by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu during
the same period. Strads are often described as
sounding sweet and golden, while Guarneriuses are
more dusky or earthy and sensuous.
A movie about Stern's trip to China, From Mao
to Mozart, won an Academy Award. Stern found time
to playa role inthe Broadway showTonight We Sing in
1952; he also inaugurated the Mann Auditorium in Tel
Aviv (1957) and founded the Jerusalem Music Centre
in 1973. In addition, Stern has served as the president
of the American-lsrael Cultural Foundation, and
was appointed in 1965 as a member of the National
Council on Arts.
47 x45 mm / Metal Arts
320 Bronze / 50 Pewter / 110 Pure Silver / 26 lOkt Gold
Later struck by Roger Williams Mint in 2001 for the Israel
Government Coins & Medals Corp.: 200 bronze (edge
numbered 321-520), 200 pure silver (edge numbered 111-310).
THE BACK STORY
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Early sketch of the Carnegie Hall reverse design for the Isaac
Stern medal in a letter from Ms. Wiener to Mel Wacks. It was later
decided not to have an inscription in exergue.
Early plaster model featured Stern in a cardigan. It was later
determined that he should be wearing more formal attire.
Mel Wacks/33
JAHF15 /1383
EM MA LA ZARUS
1849 -1887
Medalist: Gerta Ries Wiener
Obverse: Portrait, 1849-1887, surrounded by name and quote in Lazarus' own handwriting,
Emma Lazarus: "Give me your tired, your poor... yearning to breathe free."
Reverse: New immigrants passing by the Statue of Liberty, Gerta Wiener.
In 1883, a Pedestal Art Loan Exhibition was
held to raise funds forthe Statue of Liberty's pedestal.
Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, and others contributed
original manuscripts, but the highest bid of $1,500
was received for a sonnet "The New Colossus"
written just a few days earlier. The immortal words
were written by young Emma Lazarus, soon after her
return from a European trip, where she had seen the
persecution of Jews and others first hand:
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land,
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" Cries she,
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
34 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."
It was not until 1888 that the Statue of Liberty
assumed her majestic place in New York's harbor.
Sadly, Emma Lazarus didn't witness this historical
event since she died of cancer a year earlier, when she
was only 38 years old.
Actually, Emma's poem might have been
forgotten, but for the efforts of Georgiana Schuyler,
who had the words inscribed on a tablet and affixed
inside the Statue of Liberty in 1903. In 1945, the
tablet was moved from the second story landing to
the Statue's entrance, where it can be seen today.
In addition to her own writings, Lazarus —
who hadn't studied Hebrew until her 34th year —
made scholarly translations of Ben Ezra, Gabirol and
Halevi. She even found time to help establish the
Hebrew Technical Institute of New York.
47 x 45 mm / Johnson Matthey
450 Bronze / 55 Pewter / 135 Pure Silver / 26 lOkt Gold
THE BACK STORY
Excerpt from the manuscript of the sonnet "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus,
dated 1883, in the collection of the American Jewish Historical Society.
Gerta Ries Wiener's preliminary sketches for the Emma Lazarus medal. Note that
Lazarus' handwritten excerpt from The New Colossus and the New York skyline were
added later.
Mel Wacks/35
JAHF16 /1384
ISAAC BASHEVIS SINGER
1904 -1991
Medalists: Obverse by Robert Russin, reverse by Mel Wacks
Obverse: Portrait, Isaac B Singer (signature), RUSSIN.
Reverse: FREEWILL ... IS LIFE'S ESSENCE (English andYiddish).
Twenty-nine year old Isaac Bashevis Singer,
sensing the rapidly approaching catastrophe in
Europe, fled Poland and came to America in 1935.
His sole claim to fame at the time was a single
Yiddish book published in Poland: Satan in Goray.
He could speak only three words of English: "Take
a chair." Singer feared that his lot "was to be one of
those writers who write one book and become silent
forever."
For the next ten years Singer barely eked out
a living as a critic for the leading Yiddish newspaper,
The Forward. In this period, his total income from
serious literary efforts amounted to a minuscule
$90 honorarium received when Satan in Goray was
published in the United States in Yiddish in 1943, the
same year that Singer became an American citizen.
Finally in 1945, Singer began writing The
Family Moskat, which was serialized each week in
The Forward. He continued writing for them, saying
"I haven't missed a week, except that I get four
week's vacation." Translated into English. Singer's
delightful stories have appeared in Commentary,
36 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
The New Yorker, and even Playboy magazine. His
editor at Doubleday wrote that "Isaac Bashevis
Singer is a literary figure of imposing stature. [His]
prolific output of short stories, children's books,
plays, scholarly works and novels are received and
embraced by an enormous and devoted audience." In
an interview, Rebecca West indicated "I regard Isaac
Bashevis Singer as the greatest writer of today."
Love is a frequent theme in Singer's writings,
along with religion and the occult. His books have
twice won the National Book Award, and often found
their way into best seller lists. They include The
Spinoza of Market Street, The Magician of Lublin,
The Slave, In My Father's Court, Passions, and Lost
in America. One of Singer's short stories, Yentl, was
transformed into a major motion picture by Barbra
Streisand.
Success did not change him. After receiving
the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1978, Isaac Bashevis
Singer said: "I will still live at the same address. I will
still have the same telephone number. Do you think
that winning a prize can change a man's character?"
47 x 45 mm / Johnson Matthey
350 Bronze / 60 Pewter / 100 Pure Silver / 2ilOktGold
THE BACK STORY
Robert Russin sculpted Isaac Bashevis Singer's portrait from life. However, it was thought that
the raised hexagonal border would be difficult to strike and that the signature was too small. Sculptor
Alex Shagin made the modifications with the approval of Russin.
Russin's original reverse
design was considered a bit too racy
by Mel Wacks, and so calligrapher
Susan Fisher was called on to create
the reverse design, based on a quote
from one of Singer's books.
When Singer was consulted,
he indicated that he thought this
quote was "banal," and he supplied
the quote that was finally used on the
medal.
Mel Wacks / 37
JAHF17 /1985
ADOLPH OCHS
1858 -1935
Medalist: Gerta Ries Wiener
Obverse: Portrait, Gerta Wiener.
Reverse: Turn-of-the-century newsstand, The NewYorkTimes, "All the News That's Fit to Print."
While Adolph Ochs' formal education was
sketchy, he described his work at the Knoxville
(Tennessee) Chronicle as his "high school and
university." Beginning as office boy in 1869, at the
age of 11, he was soon promoted to delivery boy at a
weekly salary of $1.50. From that time until his death,
Ochs never left the newspaper business. He was a
founder of the Southern Associated Press, and was
its chairman from 1891 to 1894. For 35 years, Ochs
served as a director of the Associated Press.
At the age of 38, Ochs took on the
monumental task of reviving the financially ailing
New York Times. He insisted on a clean, upright and
impartial approach to the news. After only three years
of his dynamic leadership, The Times was showing a
profit. Ochs purchased a controlling interest in 1900.
Starting with a circulation of 9,000, The New York
Times — at the time of Ochs's death — sold almost a
half million copies daily and nearly three-quarters of
a million copies each Sunday. He had made it one of
the greatest newspapers in the world.
38 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
Adolph Ochs headed the five million dollar
campaign for the creation of Hebrew Union College's
endowment fund. He served as a trustee of Temple
Emanu-El in New York, and as a symbol of interfaith
goodwill. In 1930, Ochs presented two 12-foot
candelabra (menorahs) to the Cathedral of St. John
the Divine.
Undoubtedly, Ochs's greatest humanitarian
effort was the creation of The New York Times
Neediest Cases Fund in 1912, to provide money for
"exceptionally deserving persons among the city's
poor." That first year $3,630.88 was raised. Recent
years have seen contributions mounting to several
million dollars annually, donated by tens of thousands
of Times' readers. Every cent contributed goes to the
needy, with no deductions for administrative costs.
Thus, this son of immigrants — a lad who began his
auspicious career by earning $1.50 a week at the age
of 11 — has left a legacy that can make all Americans
proud.
47 x 45 mm / Johnson Matthey
400 Bronze / 60 Pewter / 100 Pure Silver / 24l0ktGold
THE BACK STORY
Preliminary sketches by Gerta Ries Wiener wouldn't have been able to decipher it and wouldn't
for the Adolph Ochs medal featured his signature have known whom the gentleman represented."
and the New York Times building in Times Square. Wacks suggested "to eliminate the building and
Wiener wrote to Wacks saying: "To my great regret I [instead have] a small boy selling newspapers in its
decided not to use his doodle-signature. Most people place."The medalist did the former but not the latter.
Seymour Fromer, Director of the Magnes Museum, discovered that Adolph
Ochs' name had been misspelled on the plaster as "ADOLF S. OCHS." This was
corrected at the mint before any medals had been struck.
Mel Wacks/39
JAHF18 /1386
THE JEWS WHO HELPED COLUMBUS
DON ISAAC
ABRAVANEL
1437 -1508
LUIS DE
SANTANGEL
? -1488
ABRAHAM
ZACUTO
1452 - c.1515
Medal commemorates the 500th anniversary of Columbus'first meeting with Queen Isabella.
Medalist: PaulVincze
Obverse: Cameos of ABRAHAM ZACUTO, LUIS DE SANTANGEL and DON ISAAC ABRAVANEL,
Santa Maria in center, 1492, P. VINCZE.
Reverse: Columbus kneeling before Queen Isabella et al, i486 in exergue, P. VINCZE
There has been much speculation over the
centuries as to whether Christopher Columbus
may have been Jewish or of Jewish descent. The
Encyclopaedia Britannica indicates that he may have
come from a Spanish-Jewish family settled in Genoa,
Italy. But there is no question that it was his Spanish-
Jewish friends who were instrumental in arranging
for his meeting with the Spanish Monarchs in i486,
and who turned his dream into reality.
Contrary to popular opinion, it was not
Queen Isabella's jewelry, but Spanish Jewry that
made Columbus' historical trip of discovery possible.
Actually it was Luis de Santangel, whose grandfather
had converted from Judaism to Christianity under
pressure of Spanish persecutions, who lent nearly
5 million maravedis to pay for the voyage. In
addition, Santangel's influence with King Ferdinand
40 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
and Queen Isabella was decisive in gaining their
acceptance of Columbus' proposals. In recognition
of his assistance, Santangel was the first to hear of
the historic discoveries directly, in a personal letter
from Columbus. Showing his allegiance to his former
co-religionists, Luis de Santangel made substantial
contributions toward the hiring of ships that enabled
them to leave when they were expelled en mass from
Spain.
Another of Columbus' stalwart friends was
Don Isaac Abravanel, who had remained loyal to his
religion, and who was one of the most distinguished
biblical scholars, philosophers and statesmen of the
period. He also helped to finance Columbus' voyage,
although he was not there to greet the great explorer
upon his return, since Abravanel had been expelled
58 mm / Medallic Art Company
500 Bronze / 230 Pure Silver / solOktGold
from Spain in 1492 along with all of the other Jews,
in spite of his high position in the court of Ferdinand
and Isabella.
Astronomer and rabbi Abraham Zacuto was
also forced to leave his native Spain. He was later
named Royal Mathematician to the Portuguese
royal court. There, he improved the astrolabe (early
navigational instrument) and prepared astronomical
tables, greatly improving navigational accuracy on
the high seas. A copy of Zacuto's astronomical tables,
along with Columbus' personal annotations, is still
preserved in Seville.
THE BACK STORY
Preliminary sketch by Paul Vincze shows
rough layout without inscriptions.
Vincze's clay modeling in near-finished stage.
Mel Wacks/41
JAHF19 /1987
BENJAMIN CARDOZO
1870 -1938
Medalist: Gerta Ries Wiener
Obverse: Portrait, Benjamin Cardozo (signature), Gerta Wiener.
Reverse: U.S. Supreme Court building, THE FINAL CAUSE OF LAW ISTHE WELFARE OF
SOCIETY, JUSTICE BENJAMIN NATHAN CARDOZO 1870-1938.
Born in 1870 as a twin, Benjamin Cardozo
grew up in his family's Madison Avenue home in New
York City. His early education was carried out at home
... and his tutor was Horatio Alger, who was already
a world-famous author of "rags to riches" books.
Cardozo enrolled in Columbia University before his
16th birthday, becoming its youngest student. He
graduated with the highest scholastic record in its
history.
In 1913, following the urging of civic reform
leaders, Cardozo won a seat on the New York
Supreme Court. After serving for only a few months,
the governor named him to the more prestigious
Court of Appeals, where he served with great
distinction until President Hoover appointed him to
the United States Supreme Court in 1932 — where he
served until his death in 1938.
Cardozo's opinions are easily recognized
by their "clarity, conciseness suffused with moral
luminosity, and a command of historical material
that is unrivaled in the entire common-law tradition,"
according to Judge Sidney Asch.
42 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
Benjamin Cardozo is particularly noted for his
original thinking as expounded in his books, where he
emphasized that a judge had to look beyond the legal
authorities to meet responsibility to those seeking
justice. He was a bulwark in defense of New Deal
legislation, ruling in favor of the constitutionality of
important programs such as social security and old-
age pensions.
Between February 1, 1790 when the United
States Supreme Court first met in New York City,
and October 7, 1935 when the justices convened in
their present building in Washington, D.C., the court
held sessions in a dozen different places including
Philadelphia's Independence Hall, the basement of
the Capitol, and even at Long's Tavern in Washington.
The Supreme Court Building was built thanks to the
efforts of President—and later Chief Justice—William
Howard Taft. In 1929, Congress appropriated 9.74
million dollars for the Supreme Court Building. The
classic Greek-Corinthian structure was completed
under budget, and $94,000 was returned to the US
Treasury.
45 x44 mm / Medallic Art Company
400 Bronze / 118 Pure Silver / 3ol0ktGold
I
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THE BACK STORY
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MelWacks/43
JAHF20 /1988
URIAH P. LEVY
1792 -1862
Medalist: Hal Reed
Obverse: Portrait, sailing ship, flogging scene and anti-flogging petition, COMMODORE URIAH
P. LEVY • 1792 • 1862, HR monogram.
Reverse: Monticello, Th Jefferson (signature).
Forty years before French army officer
Alfred Dreyfus was court-martialed, convicted
and eventually exonerated in trials based on anti-
Semitism, an American naval officer was facing
similar tribulations. The American court's verdict
was unanimous for the 63 year old defendant:
"Uriah P. Levy is morally, mentally, physically and
professionally fit for the Naval Service and ought to
be restored to the active list of the Navy." Within
five years of this court-martial, Levy was placed in
command of the entire Mediterranean Fleet and was
elevated to the Navy's highest rank — Commodore.
Uriah Phillips Levy was born in 1792 in
Philadelphia. He was barely 14 years old when he
embarked on his naval career by signing on as a cabin
boy. Seven years later he volunteered for service in
the United States Navy during the War of 1812, as
"proof of love to my country." The next year, Uriah
was captured and imprisoned by the British until
the end of the war. In the years following, he faced
persecution from many naval officers, he had to
defend himself in a duel, and was subjected to six
courts-martial, all instigated by anti-Semitism.
44 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
Throughout his life, Uriah P. Levy, was active
in religious life; he was the first president of the
Washington Hebrew Congregation, and in 1854 he
sponsored the new Seminary of the Bnai Jesherun
Educational Institute in New York.
It was Levy's wish that he be remembered
for his singular efforts to abolish the barbarous
punishment of flogging in the U.S. Navy, which
resulted in Congressional approval of an anti-flogging
bill in 1850.
Uriah P. Levy regarded Thomas Jefferson
as "one of the greatest men in history, who did
much to mold the Republic in a form in which man's
religion does not make him ineligible for political or
governmental life." Thus, about 10 years after the
former President's death in 1826, Levy purchased
Jefferson's rundown estate, that was virtually in ruin.
He began a long and costly program of renovation and
restoration, including the purchase of an additional
2,500 acres adjoining the historic property. After
Levy's death in 1862, his will directed that Monticello
— the house and property — be left "to the people of
the United States."
47 x45 mm / Medallic Art Company
350 Bronze / 118 Pure Silver / 25l0ktGold
THE BACK STORY
A drawing on tracing paper, which medalist Hal Reed used to transfer the reverse design to
wax so it could be modeled into the final relief. Note that it was originally planned to place
the inscription "MONTICELLO" above the building, but afterthe model was completed, it was
decided to incuse Thomas Jefferson's signature above the dome.
Plaster model of the reverse of Uriah P. Levy medal,
with "MONTICELLO" above the dome.
Mel Wacks / 45
JAHF20A /1388
IRVING BERLIN
1888 -1888
Medalist: Marika Somogyi
Design: Portrait, Irving Berlin (signature), Marika, IN HONOR OF IRVING BERLIN'S 100th
BIRTHDAY, MAY n, 1988.
The son of a cantor, Irving Berlin was born
Israel Baline on May 11, 1888 near the Siberian
border, in the Russian village of Tyumen. An anti-
Semitic pogrom in 1893 persuaded his fatherto bring
the entire family, including eight children, to New
York.
In 1924, songwriter Jerome Kern observed
"Irving Berlin has no place in American music — he
is American music." Berlin's songs include America's
unofficial national anthem God Bless America, as
well as perennial standards Easter Parade and White
Christmas, plus about 1,500 more, for which he wrote
both music and lyrics.
Irving Berlin was honored in 1944 by the
National Conference of Christians and Jews for
"advancing the aims of the conference to eliminate
religious and racial conflict." Five years later, he
was honored by the New York YMHA as one of "12
outstanding Americans of the Jewish faith." And
in recognition of the song God Bless America, Mr.
Berlin was presented with a special Congressional
gold medal in 1954 by President Dwight Eisenhower.
Earlier, the composer had assigned the copyright
to the God Bless America Fund, which has raised
millions of dollars for the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.
Following a gala 100th birthday celebration
concert at Carnegie Hall, Morton Gould, president of
ASCAP, said that "Irving Berlin's music will last not for
just an hour, not for just a day, not for just a year, but
always." Not bad for a poor immigrant who had only
two years of formal schooling and who never learned
to read or write music!
46 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
232 x220 mm / Greco Industries
Unique Bronze Plaque (No medals made, by request of Irving Berlin.)
THE BACK STORY
Marika
Somogyi's
original sketch
for the Irving
Berlin plaque
dummied in his
signature.
Plaster model
for Irving
Berlin plaque.
Note that
signature has
been modified
from original
sketch, based
on autograph
supplied by Mr.
Berlin.
Mel Wacks / 47
JAHFS1 /1989
BENNY GOODMAN
1909 -1966
Medalist: Marika Somogyi
Obverse: Portrait, Benny Goodman (signature).
Reverse: Benny Goodman with band and dancers, THE KING OF SWING 1909-1986, Marika.
Benjamin David Goodman grew up in a tough
Chicago ghetto. His father took Benny and two
brothers to a local synagogue, where they received
musical instruments and lessons. Benny later studied
with Franz Shoepp, a clarinetist in the Chicago
Symphony, which undoubtedly accounts for his love
of classical music.
Benny Goodman made history at the Palomar
Ballroom in Los Angeles on August 21,1935, when the
crowd of jumping, cheering youngsters surrounded
the bandstand during a swinging arrangement of
Sugar Foot Stomp — and the Swing Era was born!
History was made again in March, 1937 when more
than 21,000 people jammed their way into the New
York Paramount Theater to bounce in their seats and
dance in the aisles to the Benny Goodman Band. And
his 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert has earned an
honored place in America's musical folklore.
Less known is that the Benny Goodman
Quartet, featuring Gene Krupa on drums, Teddy
Wilson on piano, and vibraphonist Lionel Hampton,
made the first dent in the color barrier that had until
then kept bands all white or all black. Hampton has
said that "the Benny Goodman Quartet was the
forerunner of getting Jackie Robinson into baseball."
48 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
Goodman was equally at home playing
Mozart with the Boston Symphony or jamming
at Harlem's Savoy Ballroom. Bartok dedicated his
clarinet trio Contrasts to Benny Goodman in 1938;
later Goodman commissioned Aaron Copeland's
Concerto for Clarinet and String Orchestra in 1947, and
Morton Gould's Derivations for Clarinet and Band in
1955. Benny Goodman was also a composer, having
co-written standards such as Stompin' at the Savoy
and Swingtime in the Rockies.
Benny Goodman was elected to the faculties
of the Juilliard School of Music and Boston University.
In 1962, when "The King of Swing" made a successful
tour of the Soviet Union, one newspaper reporter
quipped that "Khrushchev would trade three Sputniks
fora Russian Benny Goodman!"
The Big Broadcast of 1937 was the first of a
long list of movies in which Goodman appeared,
and, of course, he supplied all of the clarinet solos
for the 1956 hit The Benny Goodman Story, starring
Steve Allen. Anyone who was lucky enough to see
Benny Goodman in person, listen to him on the radio,
or dance to his records, knows why he was called
"America's Number One Musician" by musicologist
Hal Davis. , „ .... A
47 x45 mm / Medallic Art Company
300 Bronze / no Pure Silver / 2olOktGold
THE BACK STORY
Marika's original sketches forthe Benny
Goodman medal; the reverse was
modified to include dancing couples.
Marika Somogyi beside plaque
made from her original plaster
model for the Benny Goodman
medal. This plaque now hangs in
the Virginia Holocaust Museum
along with all of the other Jewish-
American Hall of Fame plaques.
Mel Wacks/49
JAHF22 /1390
DR. BELA SCHICK
1877 -1967
Medalist: Gerta Ries Wiener
Obverse: Portrait with young girl, BELA SCHICK M.D. 1877-1967.
Reverse: Running young girl, The World is kept alive by the breath of Children. Talmud, GERTA
WIENER.
Youthful Bela Schick quoted the Talmud: "The
world is kept alive by the breath of children," to help
persuade his father to allow him to pursue continued
education in pediatrics, rather than to join the family
grain-merchant business in Graz, Austria. Schick
became assistant at the Children's Clinic in Vienna,
and later associate professor of pediatrics at Vienna
University.
He emigrated to the United States, and in
1923 became pediatrician-in-chief at New York's
Mount Sinai Hospital. He later (1936) was appointed
clinical professor of pediatrics at Columbia University.
Schick made important studies on scarlet fever,
tuberculosis, and the nutrition for infants ... but
gained international renown for the Schick Test. This
test determined susceptibility to diphtheria, and
eventually led to the eradication of the childhood
disease that attacked 100,000 Americans in 1927,
leading to about 10,000 deaths.
A massive five-year campaign, coordinated by
Dr. Schick, virtually eliminated the dreaded disease
that had taken countless young lives since it was first
mentioned in the sixth century writings of Aetius. As
a part of the campaign, 85 million pieces of literature
were distributed by Metropolitan Life Co. with an
appeal to parents to "Save your child from diphtheria."
These illustrated brochures were created by a
talented younq artist
who had recently THE PRIZE WINNER
emigrated from
Germany — Gerta
Ries. Remarkably,
this same artist —
Gerta Ries (Wiener)
— was commissioned
over 75 years later to
create the medal of
Bela Schick for the
Jewish-American Hall
of Fame.
50 /Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
47 x45 mm / Medallic Art Company
300 Bronze / no Pure Silver / 2olOktGold
THE BACK STORY
Gerta Ries Wiener's final drawing for
the obverse of the Bela Schick medal.
The drawing for the reverse was based
on a girl in the building where Ms.
Wiener lived.
Mel Wacks / 51
JAHFS3 /1991
HANK GREENBERG
1911 -1986
Medalist: Hal Reed
Obverse: Portrait, Hank Greenberg (signature).
Reverse: Greenberg at bat, We shall miss him on the infield. We shall miss him at the bat. But
he's true to his religion and honor him for that. HENRY 'HANK'GREENBERG, 1911-1986, HR
monogram. _
Henry Benjamin Greenberg was born in New
York City on January 1, 1911. In 1925, 14 year- old
Greenberg was a player on the Washington Avenue
Annex Settlement House baseball team, which won
the Bronx championship. Years later, Greenberg won
a scholarship to New York University, but he quit
after his first term to play baseball full time.
Hank joined the Detroit Tigers in 1933 as
a first baseman, and helped them win their first
American League pennant in 25 years. The Tigers
were champions again the following year, and Hank
won the American League's Most Valuable Player
award by a unanimous vote of the Baseball Writers
Association; he won it again in 1940 after he had
been switched to left field.
After Hank Greenberg declined to play in an
important game on Yom Kippur in 1934, Edgar Guest
published a poem, the last lines of which are: "We
shall miss him on the infield and shall miss him at the
bat, but he's true to his religion — and I honor him for
that."
As the first Jewish baseball star, Hank
Greenberg had to handle racial slurs from fans and
52 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
opponents alike. Birdie Tebbetts, a Detroit team¬
mate of Greenberg's for seven seasons, recalled that,
"There was nobody in the history of the game who
took more abuse than Greenberg, unless it was Jackie
Robinson."
Hank barely missed Babe Ruth's fabled record
of 60 home runs, when he hit 58 in 1938. However,
Greenberg did set a major league mark that year
when he slammed two homers per game eleven
times.
At the peak of his career, in 1941, Hank
Greenberg was inducted into the US Army, saying "I
never asked for a deferment. I made up my mind to
go when I was called." Rejoining the Tigers after his
discharge on June 14,1945, in the heat of a pennant
race, Hank hit a home run in his first game back, and
blasted his famous grand slam home run in the last
inning of the final game of the season. The man that
Joe DiMaggio called "one of the truly great hitters,"
was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1956.
47 x45 mm / Medallic Art Company
690 Bronze / 100 Pure Silver / i2l0ktGold
In 2011, fewer than 200 silver-plated bronze medals
were issued with edge inscription: U HANK GREENBERG
CENTENNIAL."
THE BACK STORY
k. Greenberg's portrait was initially sculpted facing left, and was later changed to
facing right.
Penultimate stage of the reverse sculpt. Hank Greenberg's dates "1911-1986"
were later inscribed into the bottom border.
Mel Wacks / 53
JAHF24 /1992
COLUMBUS
THE EXPULSION OF JEWS FROM SPAIN,
AND LANDFALL IN THE NEW WORLD WITH
LUIS DE TORRES
1492
Medalist: PaulVincze
Obverse: Portrait, ChristopherColumbus Quincentennial 1992, AFTERYOU EXPELLEDTHE
JEWS YOUR MAJESTIES SENT ME WITH A FLEET Ch Columbus (signature), P. VINCZE.
Reverse: Columbus, accompanied by Luis deTorres, meets native Americans in the New World,
astrolabe below, 14921992, P. VINCZE.
The history of Spanish (Sephardic) Jewry goes
back at least 2,000 years to the time of the Roman
Empire. The first anti-Jewish laws were passed in 589
CE, when it was ruled that children of a mixed Jewish-
Christian marriage should be baptized — and this
soon led to a policy of forced conversion of all Jews
in the kingdom. In 1694, the 17th Council of Toledo
made all Spanish Jews slaves. In the period of Arabic
rule (after 711 CE), the Jews of Spain fared better —
scholarship and culture flourished.
Beginning in 1478, in the reign of Ferdinand
and Isabella, no less than 13,000 secret Jews
(Conversos) were executed by the Inquisition. At
the same time, the monarchs continued to employ
Jewish functionaries — such as Don Isaac Abravanel
— in their court. On March 31, 1492 the Edict of
Expulsion was signed, resulting in 300,000 Sephardic
54 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
Jews leaving for refuge in North Africa, Turkey, etc.
The last Jews left on August 2,1492, the day
before Columbus sailed; that was also the traditional
day of mourning (gth of Av) for the destruction of
the First and Second Temples. This explains the first
words Columbus wrote in his log: "After you expelled
the Jews your majesties sent me with a fleet."
The only known Jew on Columbus' voyage
was Luis de Torres. Born Yosef ben HaLevi Halvri,
he had to be baptized shortly before sailing. Torres
knew Hebrew, Aramaic and some Arabic.
Torres was the first European settler in the
New World. He set up his own small empire in Cuba,
after leading an expedition into its interior and
winning the friendship of the Indian ruler. However,
Luis de Torres died within a year.
58 mm / J. Jenkins Sons
350 Bronze / 120 Pure Silver / i2l0ktGold
THE BACK STORY
Paul Vincze was too ill to complete the models, and so Hal Reed finished them, based on Vincze's drawings.
Here is a wax overlay before Reed inscribed the legend.
Vincze's clay modeling in near finished stage. Note
differences in final medal: astrolabe added below,
swords held by Columbus andTorres eliminated, water
slanted above, etc.
Mel Wacks / 55
JAHFS5 /1393
LEONARD BERNSTEIN
1918 -1990
Medalist: Marika Somogyi
Obverse: Portrait, Leonard Bernstein (signature), 1918-1990, MHS monogram.
Reverse: Bernstein presenting the Young People's Concert™.
Leonard Bernstein was born in Lawrence,
Massachusetts on August 25, 1918. When his aunt
sent her upright piano to the Bernstein home, 10 year
old Lenny looked at it, hit the key, cried "Ma, I want
lessons," — and the rest is history.
In 1943, Bernstein was appointed assistant
conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.
A few months later — at the age of 25 — Lenny burst
on the national music scene when he substituted at
the last minute for an ailing conductor. His brilliant
performance earned a tremendous ovation from the
audience, and an enthusiastic review on the front
page of The New York Times.
Bernstein was named music director of the
New York Philharmonic in 1958, becoming the first
American-born person to head a top symphony
orchestra. In his 11 years in this position, the New
York Philharmonic enjoyed unparalleled success and
prestige, and the orchestra's recordings became best
sellers. His association with the Israel Philharmonic
began shortly after the establishment of the Jewish
State, when Bernstein conducted seven official
56 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
concerts in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa.
Bernstein's classical works include ballets
(Fancy Free, Dybbuk), operas ( Trouble in Tahiti, A
Quiet Place), and symphonies ( Jeremiah, The Age of
Anxiety, Kaddish). Many regarded him as the potential
savior of the American musical, because of shows
like Wonderful Town, Candide, and West Side Story.
Bernstein also wrote the score of the motion picture
On the Waterfront.
One of Leonard Bernstein's greatest
achievements was bringing music to the masses
via television, beginning in 1957, on the Omnibus
program, and then as host of the New York
Philharmonic's Emmy Award-winning Young People's
Concerts™. One critic wrote: "Bernstein lured us onto
the stage with him, holding us with his every word
until, miraculously, we actually began to understand
how music worked and what made it beautiful."
Leonard Bernstein was widely regarded as
the most gifted and versatile American musician of
the 20th century.
47 x45 mm / Medalcraft Mint
650 Bronze / 192 Pure Silver / 2il0ktGold
THE BACK STORY
Marika Somogyi's drawings for the obverse. The close-up on the right was accepted.
Ms. Somogyi made a number of changes from her original drawing for the reverse design —
Bernstein was shown in profile, hair styles for the girls in the foreground were modified, and some
of the youngsters in the audience were made to look more attentive.
Mel Wacks / 57
JAHFS6 /1994
ERNESTINE ROSE
1910 -1892
Medalist: Gerta Ries Wiener
Obverse: Portrait, Human rights without distinction of sex, Gerta Wiener.
Reverse: Rose presenting a lecture, Ernestine L Rose 1810-1892.
Ernestine Louise Potowski was born in 1810,
the daughter of the village's rabbi, in the ghetto of
Piotrkov, Poland. She rejected an arranged marriage
at 16, and left her home within a year, traveling at
first to Germany, then Holland, and finally settling
in England. There she began her career as a public
speaker in behalf of social reform, that was to lead
to her nickname, "Queen of the Platform." Ernestine
married William Rose in 1836, and they emigrated to
New York.
The Roses soon opened a small "Fancy and
Perfumery" store in their home, where Rose sold her
perfumed toilet water and William ran a silversmith
shop.
After Ernestine Rose spoke against slavery in
South Carolina in 1847, she was threatened with being
tarred and feathered. But she did much more than
lecture. By petitioning the New York State Assembly
for 12 years, Ms. Rose led a successful campaign for
the passage of the Married Woman's Property Bill in
1848, that allowed a woman to control her own assets
after she was married.
58 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
At the first National Woman's Rights
Convention, held in October of 1850 in Worcester,
Massachusetts, Ernestine spoke with "graceful style
of eloquence," asking in part, "We have heard a great
deal of our Pilgrim Fathers but who has heard of the
Pilgrim Mothers. Did they not endure as many perils,
encounter as many hardships?"
When Susan B. Anthony listed the main
causes that led to the formation of the woman's
rights movement in America, the educational work
of Ernestine Rose was given prominence. And
when one newspaper omitted Ernestine from a list
that included Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, and
other "gifted women," an editorial in the Boston
Investigator proclaimed that "to omit her name is
like playing Hamlet with the character of Hamlet left
out."
In a letter written in 1887, Ms. Rose summed
up her life: "For over 50 years I have endeavored to
promote the rights of humanity without distinction
of sex, sect, party, country or color."
49 x47 mm / Medalcraft Mint
265 Bronze / 80 Pure Silver / ulOktGold
THE BACK STORY
Gerta Ries
Wiener's
original
sketches for the
Ernestine Rose
medal.
Ms. Wiener
was not totally
happy with
the way the
Ernestine Rose
medal turned
out, as she told
Wacks in this
note.
Mel Wacks / 59
JAHF27 /1995
ELIE WIESEL
1929 - 2016
Medalist: Obverse byAlex Shagin, reverse by Mel Wacks
Obverse: Portrait, Elie Wiesel (signature), A. Shagin # i995».
Reverse: NEVER SHALL I FORGET.
'Elie Wiesel was born on September 30, 1928 in
Sighet, a small town in Romania. His grandfather
told the young Elie Hasidic tales, which later inspired
Wiesel's writings. In 1944, the Nazis deported all of
Sighet's 15,000 Jews to the Auschwitz concentration
camp. Wiesel's mother and younger sister died in the
gas chambers, and his father died later on a forced
march to Buchenwald.
In 1957, Wiesel joined the staff of the Jewish
Daily Forward, a Yiddish-language newspaper in
New York. He became a United States citizen in 1963.
Not until 10 years after his release from Buchenwald,
did Elie Wiesel begin writing about the Holocaust.
His first biographical book And the World Remained
Silent appeared in Yiddish, and four years later it
was published in English as the novel Night. This was
followed by over two dozen semi-autobiographical
novels, plays and essays, all bearing witness to the
Holocaust.
From 1972 to 1976, Wiesel was Distinguished
Professor of Judaic Studies at City College of New
York, and then he was appointed Andrew Mellon
Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Boston
University. In 1978, Elie Wiesel was named chairman
of the President's Commission on the Holocaust,
created by President Jimmy Carter, which eventually
led to the building of the Holocaust Museum in
Washington, D.C. He has been the recipient of
numerous literary and humanitarian awards, as well
as being awarded honorary degrees from more than
30 institutions.
When presenting Elie Wiesel with the
Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, Egil Aavik said "Wiesel
is a messenger to mankind. His message is one of
peace, atonement, and human dignity. Wiesel's
commitment, which originated in the suffering of
the Jewish people, has been widened to embrace
all oppressed peoples and races." In his acceptance
speech, Professor Wiesel commented, "I have tried
to keep memory alive. I have tried to fight those who
would forget. Because if we forget, we are guilty, we
are all accomplices."
60 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
49 x47 mm / Medalcraft Mint
200 Bronze / 75 Pure Silver / 12 Cast lOkt Gold
THE BACK STORY
Elie Wiesel is one of only a handful of living
persons inducted into the Jewish-American
Hall of Fame.
Boston University
University Professors
745 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts 02215
617/353-4566
Elie Wiesel, Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities
May 13, 1994
Mel Wacks, Director
Jewish-American Hall of Fame
Judah Magnes Museum
2911 Russell Street
Berkeley, CA 94705
Dear Mr. Wacks:
Thanks for the honor for which you
have chosen me. I appreciate the warmth of
your words.
As for a photograph, perhaps Mr.
Shagin would be interested in the one that
appeared on the cover of THE NEW YORK TIMES
MAGAZINE (October 23, 1983). I enclose a
photocopy.
Sincerely,
Elie Wiesel
EW/mlh
Enclosure
An early proposal by Mel Wacks, for the reverse design, was based on a small
boy in a famous photograph, taken of a group of Jews being removed from
the Warsaw Ghetto by German soldiers on April 19,1943.
Mel Wacks/61
JAHFS8 /1396
HOUDINI
1874 -1926
Upper Half Medalist: Hal Reed
Obverse: Portrait, Houdini (signature), HR monogram.
Reverse: Children in scary Halloween scene.
Edge: MAGNES MUSEUM.
Lower Half Medalist: Hal Reed, obverse
concept by Mel Wacks
Note thatthe struck medals fit precisely together,
while the cast gold medal is a single piece with
portrait obverse and HOUDINI reverse.
62 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
49 x47 mm / Medalcraft Mint
225 Bronze / 85 Pure Silver / 7 Cast lOkt Gold
In 2001, additional medals were produced as follows:
8 bronze (edge: MAGNES),
9 bronze (edge: JEWISH-AMERICAN HALL OF FAME),
36 bronze (edge: 75TH ANNIVERSARY 1926-2001);
5 pure silver (edge: MAGNES),
6 pure silver (edge: JEWISH-AMERICAN HALL OF FAME),
14 pure silver (edge: 75TH ANNIVERSARY 1926-2001);
3 cast lokt gold (edge: MAGNES),
4 cast lokt gold (edge: JEWISH-AMERICAN HALL OF FAME),
2 cast lokt gold (edge: 75TH ANNIVERSARY 1926-2001)
Houdini was born Ehrich Weiss on March 24,
1874 in Budapest, Hungary. His family emigrated to
the United States while he wasan infant, and hisfather
became the first rabbi in Appleton, Wisconsin. They
later moved to Milwaukee, and eventually settled in
New York. Young Ehrich's life was transformed after
he learned his first trick (the vanishing quarter). At
the age of 17, he changed his name to Harry Houdini
and began performing in medicine shows, circuses,
theaters, etc.
When 100,000 people watched "The King of
Handcuffs" wriggle free while hanging from a building
in 1916, a newspaper reported that this was "the
biggest crowd ever assembled in Washington at one
place except for the inauguration of the President."
One of Houdini's most spectacular illusions was
the "Vanishing Elephant," in which the pachyderm
lumbered on to the stage and walked straight into a
large cabinet. Almost simultaneously the cabinet's
walls would be pulled back and the elephant had
disappeared. Houdini said "Even the elephant does
not know how it is done."
Four years after the Wright Brothers flew
the first practical airplane, Houdini bought a French
Voisin biplane and made his first flight. Just five
months later, on March 16,1910, he became the first
person to make a controlled, powered flight of an
airplane in Australia.
Houdini was also a motion picture star,
making his first appearance in 1918 in a serial
The Mastery Mystery. Soon he set up the Houdini
Picture Corporation where he wrote and starred
in The Man from Beyond and Haldane of the Secret
Service. On October 31, 1975 Houdini's pioneering
accomplishments earned him a star on the Hollywood
Walk of Fame.
Houdini was in his dressing room at the
Princess Theater in Montreal on October 22, 1926
when a student asked if it was true that Houdini could
sustain punches to his midsection without injury. The
visitor struck him immediately, not realizing that
Houdini had to brace himself. Even though Houdini
had stomach pain, he boarded the train for his next
appearance in Detroit. Collapsing after the final
curtain, Houdini was taken to the hospital, where his
ruptured appendix was removed. But it was too late,
and he passed away on October 31 — Halloween. At
his funeral, Rabbi Bernard Drachman called Houdini
"one of the truly great men of the age."
The interior designs of the Houdini double medal were adapted from a model made by Hal Reed years earlier,
for a medal that was never produced. The HOLLOWEEN'N (sic) inscription was removed so that the positive
and negative designs could fit together, and the dragon on the left was replaced by a witch.
Meiwacks/63
JAHFS9 /1997
BARBRA STREISAND
B. 1942
Medalist: Alex Shagin
Obverse: Portrait, *A»Shagiri97.
Reverse: Barbra at Central Park Concert, Barbra Streisand (signature).
Barbra Streisand is a legend. She is the
only artist ever to have earned Oscar, Tony, Emmy,
Grammy, Golden Globe, Cable Ace, and Peabody
Awards! She won the 1968 Academy Award for Best
Actress in her motion picture debut (Funny Girl), and
was awarded her second Oscar in 1976 for composing
the song Evergreen for her hit film, A Star is Born, she
was awarded a special Tony as "Star of the Decade,"
and 10Golden Globesforacting, directing, producing,
songwriting, and as "World Film Favorite." Barbra has
achieved more gold (37), platinum (21), and multi¬
platinum (10) albums than any other artist.
The Streisand Foundation, which she has
funded since 1986, has made grants totaling nearly
10 million dollars to American organizations that
promote and support civil rights and race relations,
environmental issues, youth-related issues focusing
on the economically disadvantaged, and AIDS
research. She donated her former 24 acre Malibu
Estate to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy,
where it has been dedicated as a center of ecological
studies.
In 1983, Barbra produced, co-wrote the
screenplay, directed and starred in the motion
picture Yentl. Her film company produced a series
of six television dramas paying tribute to non-Jews
who heroically saved Jews from the Holocaust. And
Ms. Streisand was named as honorary chairwoman
of the board of directors of Hadassah's International
Research Institute on Women when it was established
in 1997.
64 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
49 x47 mm / Medalcraft Mint
475 Bronze / 225 Pure Silver / 16 Cast lOkt Gold
THE BACK STORY
Streisand model in clay, before the
final refinements.
Meiwacks/65
JAHF30 /1998
ISODOR IDA DAVID
STRAUS STRAUS SARNOFF
1845 -1912 1846 -1912 1891 -1971
I
Medalist: Alex Shagin, from a concept by Mel Wacks
Obverse: Portraits of Isidor & Ida Straus, and David Sarnoff, ISIDOR & IDA STRAUSS, David
Sarnoff (signature).
Reverse: Titanic sinking and survivors in lifeboat, M. WACKS A. SHAGIN.
When the "unsinkable" Titanic sank on its
maiden voyage, 1,513 lives were lost. Especially hard-
hit were the men in First and Second Class and all
Third Class passengers.
Born in Bavaria in 1845, Isidor Straus came
to the United States at the age of 9, residing first in
Georgia and then in New York City. Together with his
brother Nathan, Isidor started to sell glassware and
china in R. H. Macy's in 1873. By 1896, the enterprise
was so successful that the Strauses purchased the
entire store, helping to build what is now one of the
largest store chains in the world.
Isidor Straus was a trusted advisorto President
Grover Cleveland, and he served briefly in Congress.
Isidor was also a founder of an endowment fund for
the Jewish Theological Seminary.
As the Titanic was sinking, 67-year-old Isidor
was told that he would be allowed to depart with the
women and children. But he firmly refused any special
treatment, saying he would enter a lifeboat only
with the other men. He urged his wife Ida to board
66 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
a lifeboat, but she also declined, reportedly saying,
"We have been living together for many years, and
where you go, I go." Mrs. Straus' loyalty and fidelity
to her husband, struck a chord with people around the
world, Rabbis spoke to their congregations about her
sacrifice, articles in Yiddish and German-language
newspapers extolled her courage, and a popular
song featuring the story of Ida Straus, The Titanic's
Disaster, became popular among Jewish-Americans.
Over 40,000 people attended the couple's memorial
service.
Following the Titanic disaster, young 21 year-
old David Sarnoff remained glued to his wireless
earphones in New York for 72 hours straight, and was
one of the first to relay the names of the survivors
from the Carpathia's telegraph operator to newsmen
and frantic family members.
Born in 1891, in a shtetl near Minsk, Sarnoff
came to America at the age of 9. His father died when
David was only 15, so he left school, taught himself
Morse Code, and the rest is history.
49 x47 mm / Medalcraft Mint
450 Bronze / 280 Pure Silver / 40 Cast lOkt Gold
In the year 1915, David Sarnoff conceived of
the idea that radios could "bring music into homes
by wireless," but his memo to his superiors at the
Marconi Company was dismissed as a wild scheme.
When he joined RCA in 1920, they agreed to
develop his concept. Just three years later, Sarnoff
wrote, "I believe that television will come to pass in
due course," and at the 1939 New York World's Fair he
proudly showed off the latest electronic marvel. Five
years later, President Roosevelt appointed Sarnoff as
a Brigadier General, and the Television Broadcasters
Association conferred upon him the title "Father of
American Television."
THE BACK STORY
V Tapis? wo njn f
Witanic’s Disaster.
WORDS BV
SOLOMON SMALL
(SMULEWITZ')
pianojfO /
RANGED FOR PIANO BY
H.A.RUSSOTTO
Violin
The portrayal of Ida and Isidor
Straus on the medal was inspired
by their portraits on this sheet
music, published soon after the
disaster.
-£ o ? ‘
\ cl w-c
Concept sketches by Mel Wacks.
Meiwacks/67
JAHF31 /1399
ASSER LEVY
?-1682
THE FIRST JEWISH SETTLERS IN AMERICA
1654
Upper Half Medalist: Alex Shagin, reverse concept by Mel Wacks
Obverse: Asser Levy in foreground, Jewish immigrants arriving from St. Catherine ship, ASSER
LEVY, FIRST JEWISH SETTLERS IN AMERICA 1654 NEUW AMSTERDAM, »A»SHAGIN 1999.
Reverse: THEY CAN REST PROTECTED FROM TYRANNY AND OPPRESSION HERE.
Lower Half Medalist: Alex Shagin
Obverse: Mill Street Synagogue, I WILL BE TO THEM AS A LITTLE SANCTUARY IN THE
COUNTRIES WHERETHEY SHALL COME, EZEKIAL 11:16.
Reverse: Interior of Crosby Street Synagogue.
Note that the struck medals fit precisely together, while the cast gold medal is a single piece with
Levy on obverse and "THEY CAN REST ..." on the reverse.
68 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
49 x47 mm / Medalcraft Mint
150 Bronze / 65 Pure Silver / 14 Cast lOkt Gold
Jews were initially denied the distinction of
serving in the militia because of the "disinclination
and unwillingness of fellow soldiers to be on guard
with said nation." Instead, Jews were required to pay
an insulting tax. Asser Levy, one of the first Jewish
settlers, fought and won the rightto participate in the
citizens' guards in November 1655. After Levy also
won the right to carry on trade in the community, he
built a prosperous business in real estate and opened
a Kosher butcher shop — becoming one of the most
prominent New Yorkers of the 17th century.
Probably in deference to Stuyvesant, the
Jews were not permitted to build a synagogue.
However, this situation changed after the surrender
of New Amsterdam to the British in 1664. While
there is some evidence that services were held in a
private home as early as 1695, the first congregation
— Shearith Israel — was organized around 1706. Circa
1730, they erected a small synagogue on Mill Lane,
which is pictured on this medal. At this time there
were only about 30 Jewish households in New York
City.
The synagogue wasexpanded and rededicated
in 1818, when Mordecai Manuel Noah delivered a
speech in which he proclaimed that "Until the Jews
can recover their ancient rights and dominions, and
take their rank among the governments of the earth,
this is their chosen country; here they can rest with
the persecuted from every clime, protected from
tyranny and oppression, and participating of equal
rights and immunities." An excerpt from this speech
is featured on this medal, with the encrypted name of
"NOAH."
When the congregation outgrew its Mill
Lane building, they moved uptown and built a new
synagogue on Crosby Street, which they occupied
from 1834 to i860; its interior is shown on this medal.
Historic remnants of the first synagogue can still be
seen in Shearith Israel's current building on West 70th
Street.
THE BACK STORY
Alex Shagin's preliminary sketches for medal
designs, that were not used.
Meiwacks/69
JAHF32 / 2000
ARTHUR MILLER
1915 - 2005
Medalist: Marika Somogyi
Obverse: Portrait, Arthur Miller (signature).
Reverse: Salesman, ATTENTION MUST BE PAID, MHS monogram.
Arthur Aster Miller was born in New York City
on October 17,1915. After his father's business failed,
Miller graduated from a Brooklyn high school, and then
dropped out from City College after just two weeks.
In the depths of the Depression he took various jobs,
including singing on a local radio station, and truck
driving. From 1932-34, Miller clerked in an auto parts
warehouse, where he was the only Jew employed.
There, he had his first real, personal experiences of
American anti-Semitism.
With the money he earned, Arthur Miller
enrolled in the University of Michigan, graduating
in 1938. While still an undergraduate, he wrote No
Villain in six days, and received the Hopwood Award in
Drama.
During World War II he wrote radio plays and
worked as a shipfitter's helper at the Brooklyn Navy
Yard. In 1944, Miller's first Broadway show The Man
Who HadAllThe Luck dosed afterjust six performances,
but it received the Theater Guild National Award.
Three years later, All My Sons premiered and received
the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award.
Miller's masterpiece, Death of a Salesman,
premiered in 1949 and received the Pulitzer Prize, the
New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, the Antoinette
70 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
Perry ("Tony") Award, the Donaldson Award, and
the Theater Club Award, among others. In 1953, The
Crucible opened, receiving the Tony and Donaldson
Awards. The tale of the Salem Witch Trials was a
poignant allegory for the McCarthy hearings that
were then taking place. Prophetically, just a few years
later, Miller was convicted of contempt of Congress for
refusing to name people he had seen 10 years earlier
at an alleged Communist writers' meeting. Miller
appealed, and the United States Court of Appeals
overturned his conviction.
The motion picture that he wrote for then wife
Marilyn Monroe, Misfits, premiered in 1961. After
visiting the Mauthausen death camp in 1964, Miller
covered the Nazi trials in Frankfurt, Germany for the
New York Herald Tribune. His anti-Fascist play Incident
at Vichy premiered two years later. Arthur Miller's
autobiography Time-bends was published in 1987.
Miller served as President of International
P.E.N. (Poets, Essayists and Novelists) from 1965 to
1969, where he strove vigorously to organize protests
against literary censorship and repression around the
world. As a consequence, Miller's works were banned
in the Soviet Union. , .. , .
49 x47 mm / Medalcraft Mint
165 Bronze / 65 Pure Silver / 13 Cast lOkt Gold
THE BACK STORY
Marika Somogyi's sketches for
the Arthur Miller medal.
Mel Wacks /71
JAHF33 / 2001
BESS MYERSON
1924 - 2014
I
Medalist: Alex Shagin
Obverse: Portrait, THERE CAN BE NO PLACE FOR PREJUDICE IN OUR NATION OR IN OUR
HEARTS.
Reverse: Bess as Miss America, BESS MYERSON.
Bess Myerson was the first (and, so far, only)
Jewish Miss America. She went on to become a
populartelevision personality, a public servant, and a
philanthropist.
Bess encountered anti-Semitism during
the Miss America Pageant, when an official tried to
convince her to change her name to one that was
less ethnic, suggesting Betty Merrick. Bess refused.
The dark haired statuesque (she was the tallest
contestant at 5' 10") beauty was the first recipient
of a scholarship, but none of the pageant's sponsors,
including Catalina Swimsuits — chose to use the
Jewish beauty from the Bronx as a spokesperson.
During her year as Miss America, Ms. Myerson made
many personal appearances. One of these was
scheduled at an antebellum country club, but just
before the event she was told that there had been a
terrible mistake, the country club was restricted, and
no Jewish person could possibly be welcomed there.
Bess Myerson, determined to fight racial
bigotry, traveled around the country speaking in
behalf of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai
72 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
B'rith, in cooperation with the NAACP and the Urban
League.
Many Americans remember Ms. Myerson
as Mistress of Ceremonies for The Big Payoff (1951-
9) and as a panelist on I've Got A Secret (1958-67).
From 1969-73 as Commissioner of Consumer Affairs
of New York City, Myerson was architect of the most
far-reaching consumer protection legislation in the
country at that time, and was featured on the cover
of Life Magazine (July 16, 1971) as "A Consumer's
Best Friend ... Bess Myerson on the prowl for stores
that cheat us."
From 1983-7 she served under Mayor Ed Koch
as Commissioner of Cultural Affairs, where Bess
substantially broadened financial support for New
York City's art community.
Ms. Myerson is a Founder of The Museum of
Jewish Heritage in New York, where she established
the Bess Myerson Film and Video Collection with a
grant of over a million dollars. She has also made
six-figure contributions to The Guild for the Blind,
49 x47 mm / Medalcraft Mint
150 Bronze / 65 Pure Silver / 13 Cast lOkt Gold
Hebrew University (for Cancer Research), and SHARE (to launch
an Ovarian Cancer Program). Her concern over the rising racial and
religious tensions on college campuses led Bess to endow the Bess
Myerson Campus Journalism Awards given annually by the Anti-
Defamation League.
Bess Myerson's presidential appointments include Lyndon
Johnson's White House Conference on Violence and Crime, Gerald
Ford's Commission on the National Center for Productivity and
Quality of Working Life, and Jimmy Carter's Commissionson Mental
Health and on World Hunger. She has also served on the boards of
the International Rescue Committee, the Consumers Union, Another
Mother for Peace, etc. Hunter College, where she graduated with a
music degree in the same year that she was crowned Miss America,
later presented Ms. Myerson with an honorary doctorate, as did
Long Island University and Seton Hall.
THE BACK STORY
Alex Shagin's original
sketch of Ms. Myerson,
and an early proposed
reverse design.
Mel Wacks / 73
JAHF34 / 2002
LEOPOLD KARPELES
1838 -1909
Medalist: Alex Shagin
Obverse: Portrait of Karpeles as a flag-bearer, LEOPOLD KARPELES 1838-1909, A»SHAGIN.
Reverse: Lincoln's letter and a tallit (prayer shawl), thank you heartily for your prayers ... A.
Lincoln (signature), CONGREGATION MIKVEH ISRAEL PHILADELPHIA.
Leopold Karpeles, born in Prague, Bohemia in
1838, emigrated to Galveston, Texas at the age of 11.
He became an expert rider, and eventually one of the
youngest members of the Texas Rangers. Leopold
was outspoken about his anti-slavery views, and so
he moved to Springfield, Massachusetts, where he
subsequently enlisted in the Union Army as a flag-
bearer.
Color Sergeant Leopold Karpeles was
instrumental in turning the tide of the May
1864 Wilderness Campaign, that saw his 57th
Massachusetts Regiment suffer among the highest
casualties. Some historians consider this Civil War
battle as the turning point, when the North began
its slow march toward victory. Karpeles' bravery
is described in the hero's own words: "I marched in
an inspired manner with my flag waving proudly ...
providing courage for my comrades. I'm also a prime
target for the enemy. My dedication to my country's
flag rests on my ardent belief in this noblest of causes,
equality for all."
While hospitalized with nearly total paralysis,
74 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
in Washington, D.C. in the Spring of 1864, Karpeles
was ministered to by a young volunteer — Sara
Mundheim, daughter of the local rabbi —whom he
later married. Once his health improved, Karpeles
was appointed to the Commerce and Post Office
Departments.
He was a major figure in the Grand Army of
the Republic, which supported veteran causes, and
was one of the six founders of the Medal of Honor
Legion.
Leopold Karpeles died in February, 1909
and was buried in the cemetery of the Hebrew
Congregation in Washington, D.C. His tombstone is
unique, with a replica of the Congressional Medal of
Honor emblazoned on its granite surface.
The Karpeles medal's reverse features an
excerpt of a letter, in Lincoln's own handwriting,
written on May 13, 1862 acknowledging the prayers
of the Congregation Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia for
the Union cause. Alongside is a tallit (four cornered
fringed Jewish prayer shawl).
49 x47 mm / Medalcraft Mint
150 Bronze / 65 Pure Silver / 13 Cast lOkt Gold
THE BACK STORY
Alex Shagin's initial sketch for the obverse of the Leopold Karpeles medal, and his
revised sketch.
Shagin initially had the tallit in a different position. The possibility of including a Lincoln
medal in the design was later rejected.
Mel Wacks / 75
JAHF35 / 2003-4
SAMUEL GOMPERS SAMUEL HILLMAN
1850 -1924
1887 -1946
UNfOlsI UNION
cONDrriaiM and for
WORKER
WE SHALL
FIGHT
U^TIL
UR FOOTERS
-IAYEWFALT®
<V£ HAVE*
PRODUCTION
Medalist: Karen Worth
Obverse: Portraits, SAMUEL GOMPERS • Samuel Gompers (signature) • 1850-1924, SIDNEY
HILLMAN • Sidney Hillman (signature) • 1887-1946, eagle emblem of the National Recovery Act.
Reverse: Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America union members on strike, WE SHALL
FIGHT UNTIL WE WIN, etc.
Samuel Gompers (1850-1924) was born in
London on January 27, 1850, after his parents had
emigrated from Holland. He left school at the age
of 11 to become an apprentice to a cigar maker, his
father's occupation. In 1863, his family moved to New
York. Within a year, young Samuel had joined Local 15
of the United Cigar Makers Union, and he eventually
rose to Second Vice President.
Gompers was a founder of the American
Federation of Labor (AF of L), and served as its
president for every year but one during his lifetime.
During World War I, Gompers was appointed by
President Wilson to the advisory committee of the
National Council of Defense. Following the war, he
led the United States delegation to the International
Labor Organization.
Sidney Hillman (1887-1946), a 20 year old
former rabbinical student from Lithuania, was among
the 100,000 Eastern European Jews who immigrated
to America in 1907. Hillman became an apprentice
cutter in a Chicago garment factory, working long
hours under brutal conditions.
76 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
In 1910, Hillman helped settle a major strike,
gaining union recognition and agreement to settle
future disputes by arbitration.
During the Depression, Sidney Hillman was
named to the Labor Advisory Board of the National
Recovery Administration, and helped draft the Fair
Labor Standards Act. In 1937, Hillman was a founder
and first Vice President of the Congress of Industrial
Organizations (CIO). President Roosevelt declared
that Hillman, more than any other man, helped to win
passage of the national minimum wage law of 1938.
The medal's reverse dramatically portrays
the September 1915 strike by 25,000 members of
the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America.
Union President, Sidney Hillman declared that: "All
we want is to be recognized as human beings and
not machines." Sixty percent of the workers were
young women, including Hillman's future wife Bessie
Abramowitz, who also became an important labor
leader. They worked up to 20 hours in a day for as little
as $1.25.
49 x47 mm / Medalcraft Mint
125 Bronze / 50 Pure Silver
THE BACK STORY
Karen Worth submitted several sketches for the obverse design, and the one on the right was chosen. The
NRA (National Recovery Association) emblem was moved on the final design.
Worth's original concept for the reverse design was
accepted, with the addition of a few men and the
deletion of the exergue inscription.
Mel Wacks / 77
JAHF36 / 2005
ROBERT "ROSIE" ROSENTHAL
1917 - 2007
Medalist: Jim Licaretz
Obverse: Portrait, Robert'Rosie' Rosenthal.
Reverse: Crew of "Rosie's Riveter's," JL (monogram).
The day after Pearl Harbor was attacked,
Robert "Rosie" Rosenthal enlisted in the U.S. Army.
In August 1943, he joined the 418th Squadron of
the "Bloody" 100th Bombardment Group, stationed
in England. Thirteen B-17S took off for a bombing
mission over Munster, but only one returned — aptly
named "Rosie's Riveters" — full of holes and flying on
two engines. But in spite of the intercom being out,
the oxygen system
shot-up and a large
ragged hole in the
skin ofthe right wing,
they had successfully
dropped their bombs
over the target.
In March
of 1944, Rosie's
Riveters completed
its 25th mission,
which completed
their military service.
But Rosie reenlisted,
78 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
saying "I had to do what I could for as long as I was
able." This was in spite ofthe factthat 15 missions was
the average life of a bomber crew. Later, Rosenthal
was made head of the 350th Squadron after the
commanding officer was shot down. Intelligence
Officer Marvin Bowman found Rosenthal "one of
the great figures ofthe Air Force; a shy, modest, and
patriotic gentleman of truly amazing courage and
achievement."
When Rosenthal's plane went down over
Germany in September, he broke his arm and nose —
but luckily was rescued by the Free French, to whom
he had dropped supplies only a few weeks before.
As soon as his arm had healed, Rosie returned to his
original (418th) Squadron, and was chosen to lead a
mission to Berlin on February 3,1945.
Even after a direct flak hit put an engine
on fire, his blazing Fortress still managed to drop
its bombs on the targeted Erkner factory before
Rosenthal gave the signal to "Abandon ship." The
rest ofthe crew parachuted and, after their B-17 had
49 x47 mm / Highland Mint
235 Bronze / 58 Pure Silver / 25 Gold-Plated Silver
descended to about i,ooo feet, Rosenthal was the
last to leave with the ground dangerously close, just
before the ship exploded. Fortunately, he was found
by Russians, who embraced him and took him to a
hospital. This was his 52nd mission; there was to be
just one more. Rosie flew his last mission after VE
Day, to free prisoners from concentration camps.
Robert "Rosie" Rosenthal was one of the most
decorated pilots in the Eighth Air Force. He received
16 decorations, including the Distinguished Service
Cross for "extraordinary heroism in connection
with military operations against the enemy," the
Silver Star (with cluster) for "gallantry in action," the
Distinguished Flying Cross (with cluster) for "heroism
or extraordinary achievement during aerial flight,"
the Air Medal (with seven clusters), the Purple Heart
(with cluster), plus the British Distinguished Flying
Cross and the French Croix de Guerre.
Shortly after VE Day, Rosenthal was back
in Germany as an assistant to the United States
Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials where, among
other things, he interrogated Nazi leader Hermann
Goering.
THE BACK STORY
The medal's design is based on a painting by Gil Cohen (shown
here with Rosie), depicting "Rosie" briefing his 418th Squadron
crew in 1943 on last minute details before they board their
B-17, aptly called "Rosie's Riveters," at Thorpe Abbotts, East
Anglia, England, home base of the 100th Bomb Group. Shown
are (left to right): Waste Gunner S/Sgt. Loren Darling, Pilot 1st
Lt. Robert Rosenthal, Radio OperatorT/Sgt. Michael Boccuzzi,
and Waist Gunner S/Sgt. James Mack.
Mel Wacks / 79
JAHF37 / 2006
MOE BERG
1902 -1972
Medalist: Eugene Daub
Obverse: Portrait, MORRIS "MOE" BERG 1902-1972.
Reverse: Moe as catcher, Moe Berg (signature), DAUB.
Morris "Moe" Berg was born in New York
City on March 2, 1902. He was fortunate enough to
grow up and do two things in life he really enjoyed
— playing baseball and being an intelligence officer!
Moe majored in modern languages at Princeton
University, where he played on a championship
baseball team. After graduating in 1923, he played
for the Brooklyn Dodgers as a first baseman. Later,
while attending Columbia Law School, Berg joined
the Chicago White Sox, initially as shortstop but later
as catcher.
Berg was admitted to the New York State bar
in 1928. Even after joining a prestigious law firm, he
kept playing forthe White Sox. But one day, Berg was
injured when he tore ligaments in his right knee. In
1931, the Sox traded Berg to the Cleveland Indians,
and later he was traded to the Washington Senators.
He was a member of the Senators' pennant-winning
team in 1933, and set an American League record by
catching in 117 consecutive games from 1931-1934
without making an error. However, Casey Stengel
is reported to have said that "Berg could speak in 8
80 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
languages, but couldn't hit in any of them."
Because Moe was a baseball player with an
unusual list of talents, he was always being invited to
embassy dinnersand parties—and soon became very
well known in the Capitol. In 1934, Moe Berg, along
with players including Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig,
toured Japan with an American all-star baseball team.
The government asked him to make some films of
Tokyo Harbor and some military installations while
he was there, giving Moe his first taste of intelligence
gathering — and he was hooked!
In 1938, Berg appeared on the radio quiz show
Information, Please! It was these appearances that
really made him nationally known. He was dazzling,
and NBC received as many as 24,000 letters calling
for his return. He would appear twice more.
The last baseball team Moe played for was
the Boston Red Sox, where he later coached until
1941. Moe Berg got his chance to contribute more to
his country when he was asked to tour Latin America
for the Office of Coordinator of Inter-American
49 x47 mm / Highland Mint
275 Bronze / 105 Pure Silver / 47 Gold-Plated Silver
Affairs, an agency set up to counter German, Italian
and Japanese propaganda in Latin America. His
natural ability in languages helped Moe to meet
government officials, journalists, and businessmen
— and he reported much useful information to the
agency's head, Nelson Rockefeller. Moe Berg's really
big break came in 1943 when he was recruited into the
Office of Strategic Services as a civilian employee. His
first assignment was a secret mission to Yugoslavia to
assess the strength of the two rival leaders there —
Draza Mihajlovic and Joseph Broz Tito. He correctly
reported that Tito was stronger.
General William Donovan, the head of the OSS,
placed Berg on the AZUSA project. This project
looked at the enemy's progress in developing nuclear
weapons. Berg interviewed scientists in Rome two
days after the city was liberated by U.S. troops,
to see how far the Italians had progressed in their
research. He also entered German-occupied Norway
as part of an Allied effort to find and destroy a heavy-
water plant. In Switzerland, Berg found out from a
visiting German scientist not only how far along the
Germans were in developing their weapons of mass
destruction, but also the location of the German
scientists. This information came in handy after
the fall of Germany, when Allied forces found the
scientists and took them to England before Soviet
forces could find them.
After the OSS was dissolved in 1945, Moe Berg
served on the staff of NATO's Advisory Group for
Aeronautical Research and Development. He was
awarded the Medal
of Freedom by the
United States in
1946, but modesty
led him to return it.
Moe Berg may not
be in the Baseball
Hall of Fame, but he
is the only baseball
player honored by
both the CIA Hall
of Fame and the
International Spy
Museum!
THE BACK STORY
Eugene Daub
made several
sketches before
the final designs
were chosen.
Meiwacks/81
JAHF38 / 2007
LILLIAN WALD
1867
Medalist: Virginia Janssen
Obverse: Portrait, LILLIAN WALD 1867-1940.
Reverse: Wald with family, She reacheth forth
JANSSEN.
Lillian Wald was one of the most influential
women in the 19th century. She became a legend
to the hundreds of thousands of Jewish immigrants
who streamed to the shores of the United States in
the late 1890's and early 1900's.
She wanted to enter Medical School, but
instead enrolled at New York Hospital's School of
Nursing. Later, Ms. Wald recruited another nurse,
Mary Brewster, and they made themselves available
to anyone who needed help. They charged very little
for their services and gave freely to those who could
not afford to pay. Many times they would spend the
night with a sick patient, and they would often fetch
surgeons to come when a patient was too ill to be
moved.
In 1893, Wald and Brewster created the Henry
Street Visiting Nurse Service, which became the
major model for visiting nursing in the United States.
Their headquarters at 265 Henry Street became the
Henry Street Settlement House. In 1898, they had a
staff of eleven full time workers, nine of them nurses,
and by 1916 there were more than one hundred
nurses.
82 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
1940
her hands to the needy, PROVERBS 31:20,
Lillian Wald persuaded the city to begin a
program of public nursing, that included putting
nurses into the public schools. She spoke out against
the popular movement to restrict the immigrants,
viewing the immigrants' culture as a valuable
contribution to the American way of life. Ms. Wald
was appointed to several government committees,
and also found time to help found the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
She labored for better conditions for pregnant
workers and to abolish child labor.
The Henry Street Settlement still stands
on New York's Lower East Side, now serving the
neighborhood's Asian, African-American, and Latino
population. And today, with over 9,500 highly skilled
care providers, the Visiting Nurse Service of New York
is the largest not-for-profit home health care agency
in the nation, making over two million professional
home visits to more than 100,000 patients each year.
In a speech to Vassar students on October 12,
1915, Ms. Wald quoted from Proverbs 31:20, "She
reacheth forth her hands to the needy," and these
words are inscribed on her medal.
49 x47 mm / Highland Mint
220 Bronze / 60 Pure Silver / 20 Gold-Plated Silver
THE BACK STORY
Virginia Janssen tried several different
styles and locations for the inscription on
the medal's reverse.
Meiwacks/83
JAHF39 / 2008
MILTON BERLE
1908 - 2002
Medalist: Eugene Daub
Obverse: Portrait, There's just one place for me NearYou! E. DAUB.
Reverse: Family watching television, Milton Berle 1908-2002, DAUB '07.
Milton Berlinger was born in New York City
on July 12, 1908, His onstage antics got underway
in 1913 when he won a look-alike contest with his
impersonation of Charlie Chaplin. Berle appeared as
a child actor in silent films, beginning with The Perils
of Pauline (1914).
In 1942, Milton Berle accepted an offer to
star in the Ziegfeld Follies on Broadway — and the
producers agreed to put his name above the title of
the show. This was a huge concession, and Berle says
it's the only time in the history of the Follies that a
performer saw his name above the title! The Ziegfeld
Follies opened on April 1, 1943, and ran for 553
performances. Berle also found the time to squeeze
in camp shows forthe GIs, benefits for the Red Cross,
appearances to help sell war bonds, and broadcasts
for Armed Forces Radio.
In hisfirstfourseasonsontheair, Berle reigned
as "Mr. Television," and was fondly called "Uncle
Miltie." In May 1949, he became the first comedian
to appear simultaneously on the covers of Time and
Newsweek. In 1948, Milton Berle received one of the
84 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
first Emmy Awards ever given for starring in NBC's
Texaco Star Theater. He also was the first person to
be inducted into the Television Hall of Fame (1984),
and the first inductee into the Comedy Hall of Fame
(1992).
Milton Berle was also a songwriter and author,
and appeared in dozens of motion pictures and
television shows. He received an Emmy Nomination
for his lead role in Doyle Against The Flouse on The
Dick Powell Show in 1961.
Berle was named to the Guinness Book of
World Records for the greatest number of charity
performances made by a show-business performer
over a period of 50 years. And he received an award
for entertaining at stateside military bases in World
War I as a child performer, in addition to traveling to
foreign bases in World War II and Vietnam. The first
charity telethon (forthe Damon Runyan Cancer Fund)
was hosted by Berle in 1949. A permanent fixture at
charity benefits in the Hollywood/Los Angeles area,
Milton Berle was instrumental in raising millions for
charitable causes.
49 x47 mm / Highland Mint
135 Bronze / 60 Pure Silver / 18 Gold-Plated Silver
THE BACK STORY
Meiwacks/85
JAHF40 / 2009
40 th anniversary of the jewish-american
HALL OF FAME AND 70 th BIRTHDAY OF
MEL WACKS
B. 1938
Medalist: Obverse by Eugene Daub, reverse by Mel Wacks
Obverse: Portrait, MEL WACKS SEVENTY YEARS 2008 5768, EUGENE DAUB.
Reverse: THE JEWISH-AMERICAN HALL OF FAME.
Jewish-American Hall of Fame founder, Mel
Wacks, was born in the Bronx on July 10, 1938. He
began collecting at the age of 10, after his father
gave him a pouch of old coins. Mel earned Bachelor's
and Master's Degrees in Electrical Engineering at
CCNY and NYU, respectively, and went on to work in
several engineering companies — but found his true
calling in the world of numismatics.
Mel's articles have appeared in The
Numismatist, Coin World, Numismatic News, World
Coin News, The Medal, The Shekel, etc. His Handbook
of Biblical Numismatics was published in 1976, and an
updated version is now available to everyone on the
Internet.
Mel Wacks founded the Jewish-American
Hall of Fame at the Judah L. Magnes Museum in
1969, to honor the unique contributions made by
Jewish Americans to all phases of the American
way of life. The Jewish-American Hall of Fame has
86 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
raised over a quarter of a million dollars for non¬
profit organizations, principally the Judah L. Magnes
Museum, the American Jewish Historical Society,
the Cincinnati Skirball Museum, the American
Numismatic Society, etc.
Jewish-American Hall of Fame medals are
prized by thousands of collectors, and are in the
collections of the Smithsonian Institution's Archives of
American Art, and other museums around the world.
Mel has coordinated the design, production
and marketing of the Jewish-American Hall of Fame
medals. The award-winning web site www.amuseum.
org, written and designed by Mel, is visited by over a
million people from around the world every year.
The Jewish-American Hall of Fame plaques
are on exhibit at the Virginia Holocaust Museum
in Richmond, and the Jewish-American Hall of
Fame Medals Collection is a permanent part of the
Cincinnati Skirball Museum.
49 x47 mm / Highland Mint
95 Bronze / 57 Pure Silver / 18 Gold-Plated Silver
I
THE BACK STORY
Eugene Daub made several sketches of Mel Wacks in preparation for the medal.
The reverse design was physically pasted up by Mel Wacks from the calligraphy of
David Mekelburg. "THE" was added later.
V
Mel Wacks/87
JAHF41 / 2010
BARNEY ROSS
1909 -1967
Medalist: Eugene Daub
Obverse: Portrait, Barney Ross (signature), E.L. DAUB.
Reverse: Silver Star, SILVER STAR FOR CONSPICUOUS GALLANTRY AND INTREPIDITY
IN ACTION AGAINSTTHE ENEMY WHILE SERVING WITH A MARINE BATALLION IN
GUADALCANAL NOV. 18-20,1942. THE NIGHT I SPENT IN THAT SHELL HOLE WITH FIVE
WOUNDED LEATHERNECKS ANDTWO SOLDIERS WAS BY ALL ODDSTHETOUGHEST ROUND
I'VE EVER SLUGGEDTHROUGH. SGT. BARNEY ROSS.
Dov-Ber Rasofsky was born in Chicago on
December 23, 1909. When he was a 14-year old
rabbinical student, his father — who was a rabbi —
died in his arms, after being shot in a robbery. As a
consequence, his mother Sarah suffered a nervous
breakdown and histhreeyoungersiblings were placed
in an orphanage or farmed out to other members of
the extended family. Dov and his two older brothers
were left to their own devices. He began running
around with local toughs, developing into a street
brawler and small-time thief. Dov was even employed
by Al Capone.
He changed his name to Barney Ross and
went on to become a Golden Gloves champion
— called "The Pride of the Ghetto" — eventually
dominating the lighter professional divisions. At a
time, the late 1920s and '30s, when rising Nazism was
using propaganda to spread virulently anti-Jewish
philosophy, Ross was seen by American Jews as one
of their greatest advocates. Barney Ross was the first
88 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
boxer to hold 3 World titles at the same time (World
Lightweight and Junior Welterweight Champion
3.933-1935 and World Welterweight Champion in 1934
and 1935-1938). Ross was known as a smart fighter
with great stamina, and was never knocked out in his
career.
In his early thirties, after his boxing career had
ended, Ross joined the United States Marine Corps.
The Marines wanted to keep him stateside and use his
celebrity status to boost morale. Most of the athletes
of the era like heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey
had ceremonial roles in the military, but Ross insisted
on fighting for his country.
Barney Ross was sent to Guadalcanal in the
South Pacific, where one night, he and three other
stretcher bearers — along with a wounded man and
two soldiers — were trapped under enemy fire. All of
his fellow Marines were wounded, as was Ross, but
he was the only one able to fight. Ross gathered his
49 x47 mm / Highland Mint
117 Bronze / 82 Pure Silver / 27 Gold-Plated Silver
comrades' rifles and grenades and single-handedly
fought nearly two dozen Japanese soldiers, killing
them all by morning. Two of the Marines had died in
the battle, but Ross carried the remaining man on his
shoulders to safety, even though he outweighed Ross
by nearly 100 pounds.
Because of his heroism, Ross was awarded two
Purple Hearts and America's third highest military
honor, the Silver Star "For conspicuous gallantry and
intrepidity in action against the enemy while serving
with a Marine Battalion in Guadalcanal Nov. 18-20,
1942," which is inscribed on Ross's Jewish-American
Hall of Fame medal.
During his recovery at the hospital from his
wounds he had received, Ross developed a habit
for the morphine administered for pain. Back in the
states, the morphine became a heroin habit. After
Barney Ross went to a recovery center and beat his
addiction, he gave lectures to high school students
about the dangers of drug addiction. Ross' boxing
career, World War II heroics, subsequent drug
addiction and recovery were depicted in the 1957
film, Monkey on My Back.
Early in 1948, Barney Ross signed up more
than 2,000 volunteers to fight for the creation of a
Jewish state, but the State Department refused to
issue them passports. Ross went on to raise money
forthe cause and even helped arrange for armaments
to be sent to the Irgun.
When Ross died at the age of 57, The New
York Times obituary indicated: "A student of the
Talmud who turned to prizefighting, Barney Ross was
regarded as one of the toughest champions. Outside
of the ring, moreover, his heroism on Guadalcanal and
his victory over a narcotics habit brought him further
recognition as a man who had never been knocked
out and had never quit."
In addition to being inducted into The Jewish-
American Hall of Fame in 2010, Barney Ross has been
inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame,
the World Boxing Hall of Fame, the Chicagoland
Sports Hall of Fame, the International Jewish Sports
Hall of Fame, and the National Jewish Sports Hall of
Fame.
THE BACK STORY
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Barney Ross clay in progress, and Daub's preliminary sketch for reverse, with text added by Mel Wacks.
Mel Wacks/89
JAHF42 / 2011
GERTRUDE ELION
1918 -1999
Medalist: Daniel Altshuler
Obverse: Portrait, GERTRUDE ELION 1918-1999, DIA.
Reverse: Elion and Carl XVI Gustaf, the King of Sweden, NOBEL PRIZE IN MEDICINE FOR
DISCOVERIES OF IMPORTANT PRINCIPLES FOR DRUG TREATMENT 1988, Daniel Altshuler SC
2011.
Gertrude Elion's exceptional accomplishments
over the course of her long career as a chemist
include the development of the first chemotherapy
for childhood leukemia, the immune-suppressant
that made organ transplantation possible, the first
effective antiviral medication, and treatments for
lupus, hepatitis, arthritis, gout, and other diseases.
With her research partner, George Hitchings, she
revolutionized the way drugs were developed,
and her efforts have saved or improved the lives of
countless individuals. Elion stated: "It's amazing how
much you can accomplish when you don't care who
gets the credit."
Gertrude Belle Elion was born in New York
City on January 23,1918. Soon after graduating from
high school, young Gertrude watched her beloved
grandfather die painfully of stomach cancer, and
deciding:"nobody should suffer that much," she
dedicated herself to finding a cure for cancer. In 1937,
at the age of 19, Elion graduated from Hunter College
summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. Many years
90 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
later, Elion created a scholarship at Hunter College
for female graduate students in chemistry.
Unable to find a suitable position, she began
volunteering in a chemistry lab, enduring daily anti-
Semitic jokes from the company president but
gaining valuable experience. By the end of a year
and a half, she was paid $20 a week, out of which
she saved enough to enroll at New York University.
The only woman in her graduate chemistry classes,
she wrote her thesis at night and on weekends while
working first as a doctor's receptionist and then as
a substitute teacher of high school chemistry and
physics. In 1941, she received her Master's degree.
In June 1944, Elion was interviewed by Dr.
George Hitchings of Burroughs Wellcome (now
GlaxoSmithKline), the pharmaceutical company.
Elion was intrigued by Hitchings' research project; and
he was impressed by the young woman's intelligence
and energy. Over the next decades, the Hitchings-
Elion partnership proved immensely fruitful.
In 1950, Elion synthesized a compound (6-
49 x47 mm / Medalcraft Mint
125 Bronze / 75 Silver-Plated Bronze / 25 Gold-Plated Bronze
I
MP) that caused complete remissions in children with
leukemia, but a relapse invariably followed. After
further research, it was discovered that when 6-MP
was combined with other medications, approximately
80% of child leukemia patients would be cured. Prior
to 6-MP, half of all children with acute leukemia died
within a few months.
In 1958, a young British surgeon used 6-MP
to temporarily prevent the rejection of a transplanted
kidney in a dog. Excited, Elion gave him several
similar compounds, in the hopes that one would be
even more effective. The following year, he used
Elion's drug azathioprine (known as Imuran), to
transplant a kidney successfully into a dog named
Lollipop. In 1961, doctors used Imuran to perform
the first successful kidney transplant between two
unrelated humans. Thanks to Elion's work, organ
transplantation has become routine today.
After several years of work, the Burroughs
Wellcome team triumphantly unveiled acyclovir
(Zovirax), the first medication effective against
viruses. Elion later referred to acyclovir as her "final
jewel.... That such a thing was possible wasn't even
imagined up until then."
In 1964, Gertrude Elion received a call from
George Mandell of George Washington University,
who said, "The kind of work you're doing, you've long
since passed what a doctorate would have meant.
But we've got to make an honest woman of you.
We'll give you a doctorate, so we can call you 'doctor'
legitimately." This was the first of 25 honorary
doctorates Elion received.
When it was discovered that one of her
drugs was an effective treatment for Leshmaniasis
disease, a serious problem in South America, she
pushed hard for Burroughs Wellcome to follow up
on the matter, regardless of the money involved. As
a former colleague remarked, "She has a real social
conscience.... In fifty years, Trudy Elion will have
done more cumulatively for the human condition
than Mother Theresa."
In 1988, Elion received the Nobel Prize in
Medicine "for discoveries of important principles for
drug treatment," together with Dr. Hitchings and
Sir James Black. Few Nobels have gone to scientists
working in the drug industry orthose without Ph.D.s,
and even fewer to women. Gertrude Elion was only
the fifth female Nobel laureate in Medicine, and
just the ninth in science. In 1991 she was awarded
the National Medal of Science and became the first
woman to be inducted into the National Inventors
Hall of Fame.
This information was excerpted from the
Jewish Women's Archive.
THE BACK STORY
When several different patinas applied to untrimmed
medals were submitted to Mel Wacks for approval, it
was discovered that the date of Elion's Nobel Prize was
mistakenly indicated as "1989" instead of "1988." Since
all of the medals had already been struck, the mint re¬
engraved the date on the die and restamped all of the
medals.
Mel Wacks/91
JAHF43 / 2012
MORDECAI MANUEL NOAH
1785 -1851
Medalist: Eugene Daub
Obverse: Portrait, MORDECAI M. NOAH 1785-1851. E.L. DAUB.
Reverse: Noah writing by candlelight, THE MOST DISTINGUISHING FEATURE of OUR
CONSTITUTION IS RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, M. M. Noah (signature), DAUB.
Mordecai Manuel Noah was born in
Philadelphia, on July 19, 1785. He was the first-born
son of Manuel Noah, an immigrant from Mannheim,
Germany, who had served in the American
Revolutionary War, and Zipporah Phillips, daughter
of Jonas Phillips and Rebecca Machado, whose father
had served as hazzan (cantor) of the Shearith Israel
Congregation of New York. Though three of his
grandparents were Ashkenazi, Noah stressed his
Sephardi identity.
As a public servant, Noah served as a Major in
the New York Militia, Consul to the Kingdom of Tunis,
sheriff of New York and surveyor of its port, and judge
in its court of General Sessions. In his lifetime, Noah
was editor of half a dozen newspapers. In the Jewish
community, Noah served as its chief orator, delivering
the major addresses at its important communal
gatherings. To Americans he was the representative
Jew; to Jews, he was the quintessential American.
Noah wrote to Secretary of State James
Monroe in 1811, that his appointment to a consulship
would "prove to foreign powers that our government
92 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
is not regulated in the appointment of their officers by
religious distinction." But unfortunately, even after
he had arranged for the freedom of Americans held
captive by Barbary Coast pirates, Noah's position
as Consul to the Kingdom of Tunis was terminated
by Monroe, who stated: "At the time of your
appointment, as Consul to Tunis, it was not known
that the religion which you profess would form an
obstacle to the exercise of your Consular functions."
Noah's response, in part, was: "My dismissal from
office in consequence of religion ... may hereafter
produce the most injurious effects establishing a
principle, which will go to annihilate the most sacred
rights of the citizen."
In the early decades of the nineteenth
century, America's greatest need was for immigrants.
Thus, in Buffalo, New York on September 15, 1825,
Noah dedicated Ararat as "A City of Refuge for the
Jews." Accounts of the Ararat ceremony appeared
in newspapers throughout the United States and in
England, France, and Germany as well. The event
49 x47 mm / Medallic Art Company
120 Bronze / 65 Silver-Plated Bronze / 27 Gold-Plated Bronze
presented the Jews as the most desirable citizens a
nation could want —able, ambitious, productive, and
loyal. To the Jews of the Old World, it portrayed what
kind of country America was for the Jews. America's
most prominent Jew proclaimed a Jewish state on
American soil and welcomed his brethren to settle it.
The ceremonies included the laying of
the cornerstone, with its Hebrew prayer "Sh'ma
Yisrael Adonai Elohaynu Adonai Echad" (Hear O
Israel the Lord is God the Lord is One), and English
inscription: "Ararat, a City of Refuge for the Jews,
founded by Mordecai M. Noah in the Month of Tishri,
5586 (September, 1825)
and in the Fiftieth Year of
American Independence."
The cornerstone is on now
on display at the Buffalo
Historical Society.
While Noah's efforts to establish a Jewish
homeland in the United States failed, in 1837 he called
for: "The Jewish people must now do something
for themselves ... Syria [i.e., Palestine] will revert
to the Jewish nation by purchase ... Under the co¬
operation and protection of England and France, this
reoccupation of Syria ... is at once reasonable and
practicable."
Noah wrote these prophetic words a half-
century before Theodor Herzl wrote Der Judenstaat,
and more than a century before the establishment of
the State of Israel.
Bibliography: Abraham J.
Karp, From the Ends of the
Earth: Judaic Treasures of the
Library of Congress, 1991).
THE BACK STORY
Eugene Daub's clay modeling before
inscriptions had been added.
Mel Wacks/93
JAHF44 / 2013
RUTH BADER GINSBURG
Medalist: Eugene Daub
Obverse: Portrait, JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG, DAUB.
Reverse: Moses with Ten Commandments (after Hermon MacNeil), THE DEMAND FOR JUSTICE
RUNSTHROUGHTHE ENTIRETY OFTHE JEWISH TRADITION.
When Ruth Bader Ginsburg was appointed by
President Bill Clinton and sworn in as the 107th justice
to the United States Supreme Court on August 10,
0.993, she became the second woman justice and the
first Jewish woman ever to sit on the Court.
The Ginsburg medal crowns a year of
impressive achievements for sculptor Eugene Daub,
who previously attended the dedication of his statue
of Rosa Parks in the National Statuary Hall in the
United States Capitol — the first full-sized statue
authorized and funded by Congress since the 1870s.
The reverse of the medal features Moses,
holding the Ten Commandments, represented by
the first ten letters of the ancient Hebrew alphabet.
The great lawgiver is based on a sculpture by Hermon
MacNeil in the eastern pediment of the Supreme
Court Building. Inscribed is an extract from Ginsburg's
remarks when she received the Albert D. Chernin
Award given annually by the Jewish Council for Public
Affairs: "I am a judge, born, raised, and proud of
being a Jew. The demand for justice runs through the
entirety of the Jewish history and Jewish tradition.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was born in Brooklyn
on March 15, 1933. She was an excellent student in
school, and was confirmed with honors by the East
94 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
Midwood Jewish Center. At James Madison High
School, she played the cello in the orchestra, was a
member of Arista, was a cheerleader and a baton
twirler, and the school newspaper editor.
One of only nine women at Harvard Law
School, Ginsburg and her female classmates were
asked by the dean why they were occupying seats
that would otherwise be filled by men.
After transferring and graduating (tying for
first in her class) from Columbia Law School, Ginsburg
became the second woman to join the faculty of
Rutgers Law School. When she discovered that her
salary was lower than that of her male colleagues,
she joined an equal pay campaign with other women
teaching atthe university, which resulted in substantial
increases for all the complainants. Prompted by her
own experiences, Ginsburg established the ACLU
Women's Rights Project in 1972 so that "artificial
barriers are removed, and avenues of opportunity
[are] held open to women.
The National Women's Hall of Fame sums up
Ginsburg's service on the Supreme Court as: "Justice
Bader Ginsburg has become known for her scholarly,
balanced opinions and forthright personal courage."
49 x47 mm / Highland Mint
100 Bronze / 55 Pure Silver / 27 Gold-Plated Silver
THE BACK STORY
Ruth
SADFR
NS5URG
Preliminary sketches of Ruth Bader
Ginsburg by Eugene Daub.
Moses was much smaller in early sketch.
THE DEMAND
FOR JUSTICE RUN'
THF\QUC-H THE ENTIRETY
OF THE JEWISH
TRADITION ^
Mel Wacks / 95
JAHF45 / SOU
1 st JEWISH CHAPLAIN AND THE 4 CHAPLAINS
RABBI RABBI
JACOB FRANKEL ALEXANDER GOODE
1808 -1887 1911 -1943
Medalist: Eugene Daub
Obverse: Portrait, Rabbi Jacob Frankel 1808-1887,1st U.S. Jewish Chaplain, DAUB.
Reverse: Portraits and sinking troop ship SS Dorchester, THE 4 CHAPLAINS, REV. GEORGE FOX,
FR. JOHN P. WASHINGTON, RABBI ALEXANDER GOODE, REV. CLARK POLING, DAUB.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Jews could
not serve as chaplains in the U.S. armed forces. When
the war commenced in 1861, Jews enlisted in both
the Union and Confederate armies. The Northern
Congress adopted a bill in July of 1861 that permitted
each regiment's commander, on a vote of his field
officers, to appoint a regimental chaplain so long as he
was "a regularly ordained minister of some Christian
denomination."
Hoping to create a test, Colonel Max Friedman
and the officers of the Cameron's Dragoons elected
an ordained rabbi, the Reverend Arnold Fischel of
New York's Congregation Shearith Israel, to serve as
regimental chaplain-designate. When Fischel, a Dutch
immigrant, applied for certification as chaplain, the
Secretary of War complied with the law and rejected
Fischel's application.
Fischel's rejection stimulated American Jewry
to action. Armed with letters of introduction from
Jewish and non-Jewish political leaders, Fischel met
on December 11,1861 with President Lincoln to press
96 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
the case for Jewish chaplains. Fischel explained to
Lincoln that he came to "contend for the principle of
religious liberty, for the constitutional rights of the
Jewish community, and for the welfare of the Jewish
volunteers."
Lincoln promised Fischel that he would submit
a new law to Congress "broad enough to cover what
is desired by you in behalf of the Israelites." Lincoln
kept his word, and on July 17,1862, Congress adopted
Lincoln's proposed amendments to the chaplaincy
law, to allow "the appointment of brigade chaplains of
the Catholic, Protestant and Jewish religions."
Almost as soon as the law changed, the
Board of Ministers of the Hebrew Congregations of
Philadelphia requested a Jewish hospital chaplain.
Philadelphia was becoming "a central depository for
sick and wounded soldiers," and two soldiers of Jewish
faith had already died without benefit of clergy.
Jacob Frankel's fellow clergymen nominated
the popular rabbi, nicknamed the "sweet singer of
49 x47 mm / Medalcraft Mint
125 Bronze / 65 Pure Silver / 27 Gold-Plated Silver
I
Israel," and Lincoln signed the commission on Sep.
18,1862. For three years, he acted as Army chaplain,
singing, chanting, and praying with hospitalized and
other soldiers.
There are many stories of bravery among the
American Military during World War II, but few have
captured the imagination and admiration of Americans
more than the Four Chaplains — Rabbi Alexander D.
Goode; Father John Washington, a Catholic priest;
Reverend Clark Poling, a Dutch Reformed minister;
and Reverend George Fox, a Methodist minister.
Rabbi Alexander D. Goode was born in
Brooklyn, New York on May 10, 1911, the son of a
rabbi. He was raised in Washington, D.C., and later
studied for the rabbinate at Hebrew Union College,
where he received a B.H. degree in 1937, followed by a
Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1940.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Rabbi
Goode applied to the Army, receiving his appointment
as a chaplain on July 21, 1942. Chaplain Goode went
on active duty on August 9,1942, and was selected for
the Chaplains School at Harvard in October.
The Dorchester left New York on January
23, 1943, en route to Greenland, carrying the four
chaplains and approximately 900 others, as part of a
convoy of three ships.
During the early morning hours of February
3,1943, at 12:55 a.m., the vessel was torpedoed by a
German submarine off Newfoundland in the North
Atlantic. The torpedo knocked out the Dorchester's
electrical system, leaving the ship dark. Panic set
in among the men on board, many of them trapped
below decks. The chaplains sought to calm the men
and organize an orderly evacuation of the ship. As life
jackets were passed out to the men, the supply ran
out. The chaplains removed their own lifejackets and
gave them to others. They also helped as many men
as they could into lifeboats, and then linked arms and,
saying prayers and singing hymns, went down with the
ship.
On December 19, 1944, all four chaplains
were posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and
the Distinguished Service Cross. In addition, the Four
Chaplains' Medal, was approved by a unanimous act
of Congress on July 14, i960, through Public law 86-
656 of the 86th Congress. The medals were presented
posthumously to the next of kin of each of the Four
Chaplains by Secretary of the Army Wilber M. Brucker
at Ft. Myer, Virginia on January 18,1961.
Bibliography: The Fight for Jewish Chaplains chapter in
Blessings of Freedom, by Michael Feldberg Ph.D.
Daub's early sketches were later revised.
The medal's reverse design was inspired by
the FourChaplains stained glass window at
the Pentagon.
Mel Wacks / 97
THE BACK STORY
JAHF46 / 2015
GERTRUDE BERG
AKA MOLLY GOLDBERG
1899 -1966
Medalist: Eugene Daub
Obverse: Portrait, Gertrude Berg 1899-1966, "YOO-HOO Mrs. Bloom," SANKA/DAUB, MOLLY
GOLDBERG in exergue.
Reverse: Cast of The Goldbergs, THE GOLDBERGS, DAUB.
Gertrude Berg was born Tillie Edelstein in
New York City in 1899. Her father, Jake Edelstein, ran
a resort in the Catskill Mountains where Tillie worked
and eventually created and performed skits to amuse
the guests' children. She met an older Englishman,
Lewis Berg, one summer at the resort. He wooed
her, and when she turned eighteen they married.
A few years later, she started to pursue her writing
and acting careers full time, changing her name to
Gertrude Berg.
Berg began writing radio scripts based on
a fictional family she had formulated as a young
woman, now calling them The Goldbergs, a
combination of her mother's maiden name and her
husband's last name. The Goldbergs premiered on
radio in 1929 with Gertrude filling in for the role of
Molly until another actress could be found. She was
so good that when she was sick for a week the public
sent in mass amounts of fan mail asking, "Where's
Molly?" Audiences loved listening to the stories and
struggles of the Goldberg family and their neighbors,
98 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
and instantly took to the warmth and guidance of the
accented Molly Goldberg. CBS executives knew they
had a hit.
As scriptwriter and star, Gertrude Berg was
one of the leading women in radio with one of the
longest running shows. Unlike Molly, Berg lived on
Park Avenue, owned a country house, and did not
speak with an accent or recite malapropisms. She
wrote early in the morning, and then went to the
studio to produce and star in her show.
In 1947, following her 17 year run on radio,
Gertrude saw television as a new exciting media, and
a new opportunity to reinvigorate and reintroduce
The Goldbergs following World War II. After a stage
play, The Goldbergs premiered on CBS in 1949.
Gertrude Berg was lead writer, star, and producer yet
again, and The Goldbergs climbed in popularity.
In 1950, Gertrude Berg won the first best
actress Emmy Award in history, she had a clothing
line for housewives, published a cookbook, and
49 x47 mm / Highland Mint
115 Bronze / 57 Pure Silver / 27 Gold-Plated Silver
wrote an advice column called Mama Talks. Her
television show was made into a movie called Molly
by Paramount Pictures — with Berg on set and in the
editing room, exerting her influence as screenwriter
and producer.
The Goldbergs eventually moved from the
Bronx to the suburbs, and continued until 1954, after
which Berg also wrote and produced a syndicated
film version that remained on the air for another few
years.
Gertrude Berg went on to star in theatrical
productions, and won a Tony in 1959 for best actress
in A Majority of One. She appeared in a television
presentation of The Word ofSholom Aleichem in the
same year, and then returned to television as writer
and star in Mrs. G Goes to College, which later became
known as The Gertrude Berg Show.
Gertrude Berg was the highest paid guest star
at the time, and appeared with Steve Allen, Milton
Berle, and Perry Como. Her pioneering show The
Goldbergs blazed the trail for / Love Lucy and all other
sitcoms to follow.
THE BACK STORY
Daub's preliminary sketch for the
reverse (above) was missing the
grandfather, who was added in
the clay model (below). Depicted
are children Arlene McQuade as
Rosalie and Tom Taylor as Sammy,
Eli Mintz as uncle David, Gertrude
Berg as Molly, and Philip Loeb as
husband Jake.
Mel Wacks/99
JAHF47 / 2016
JUDITH RESNIK JEFFREY HOFFMAN
1349 -1986 B. 1944
Medalist: Eugene Daub
Obverse: Portrait, JUDITH RESNIK, DAUB
Reverse: Hoffman repairing the Hubble telescope, DAUB.
JUDITH RESNIK
One of the seven crew members who died in
the tragic explosion of the space shuttle Challenger
on January 28, 1986, Judith ("J.R.") Resnik was a
pioneer for women entering NASA's space program,
and the second American woman astronaut to travel
in space.
Born Judith Arlene Resnik on April 5, 1949,
in Akron, Ohio, to first-generation Jewish Russian
parents, Judith was a bright, curious child who, by
kindergarten, could both read and solve simple math
problems.
Resnik received her master's degree in
engineering from the University of Maryland, and
began work on her Ph.D. while employed as a
biomedical engineer in the neurophysics lab at the
National Institutes of Health.
In 1977, NASA began recruiting minorities and
women to the space program, and Resnik applied.
After receiving academic honors for her doctoral
work in electrical engineering, Resnik was one of six
women accepted into the
100 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
program. She would be the second American woman
to fly in space.
During her first six years at NASA, Resnik
specialized in the operation of a remote-control
mechanical arm that moved objects located outside
the spacecraft. In 1984, on herfirst space flight on the
shuttle Discovery, she was responsible for unfurling
a 102-foot-long solar sail, which, on future missions,
would be used to capture the sun's energy.
NASA's Challenger, Flight 51-L, was Dr.
Resnik's second space launch. She was to have
assisted in photographing Halley'scomet.The mission
endured three delays before taking off at 11:38 a.m.
on January 28, 1986. Seventy-three seconds into
the flight, the space shuttle exploded in midair due
to hydrogen leakage caused by faulty O-ring seals.
Along with her six crew members, Judith Resnik died
in one of the worst space disasters in history.
Bibliography: Judith Resnik by Lynn Cohen, courtesy
ofwww.jwa.org (Jewish Women's Archive)
49 x47 mm / Medallic Art Company
130 Bronze / 60 Pure Silver / 31 Gold-Plated Silver
JEFFREY HOFFMAN
Dr. Jeffrey Hoffman was hooked on space
since childhood, in the age of Flash Gordon and Buck
Rogers. He grew up, got married, and one night his
wife read aloud a passage in a book that said that
Jews in New York City are so diverse that they can't
be stereotyped; the only valid generalization is that
no Jew has ever been an astronaut or will ever be an
astronaut. Hoffman decided to prove that wrong,
and to honor his Jewish heritage in space.
He moved to Houston, became the first
astronaut to log over 1,000 hours in space, and went
up into the firmament five times, including a mission
to fix the Hubble telescope.
On his first flight, Hoffman took a mezuzah
along, and velcroed it onto the sleeping bunk the
astronauts used in rotation. "You can't nail a mezuzah
to the door of a space shuttle," the astronaut
explained with a grin.
On a subsequent flight, he went up 400 miles
at a speed of 18,000 mph — with six other crew
members —to repairthe Hubble, in September 1993.
The Hubble mission occurred during Chanukah, and
in addition to a mezuzah and other small Jewish
objects, Hoffman took along a dreidel (a Chanukah
top). Images were sent back to mission control, so
he decided to explain what a dreidel was. He went on
TV, talking about Chanukah and spinning the dreidel
to demonstrate the game. The little top floated
magically in the cabin, suspended in mid-air. Then
he showed the cameras — and the world — a small
portable menorah he brought along, but of course
there was no candle lighting.
Dr. Hoffman has said: "I thoroughly hope that
when humans go to settle Mars, Jews will go too and
bring their Jewishness. It's part of what makes the
world holy and we should bring it wherever we go."
Bibliography: The Ultimate Jewish Traveler by Judie
Fein, courtesy ofwww.chabad.org.
THE BACK STORY
Preliminary clay renderings of both sides of the medal by Eugene Daub.
Mel Wacks /101
JAHF48 / 2017
JOSEPH PULITZER
1847 -1911
Medalist: Eugene Daub
Obverse: Portrait (after John Singer Sargent), JOSEPH PULITZER 1847-1911, DAUB.
Reverse: Standing figure of Pulitzer (after William A. Rogers), OUR REPUBLIC AND ITS PRESS
WILL RISE OR FALLTOGETHER, DAUB.
Joseph Pulitzer was born in Mako, Hungary on
April 10,1847. Both his parents were registered by the
official Jewish registry under the heading of Religion
as "Israelite" and under Nationality as "Jewish." In
accordance with Jewish law, Joseph Pulitzer was
circumcised eight days after his birth, and he likely
received a traditional Jewish upbringing at Mako's
cheder (Jewish primary school).
Pulitzer arrived in Boston from Hungary in
1864 at the age of 17, his passage having been paid by
Massachusetts military recruiters who were seeking
soldiers for the American Civil War. Pulitzer was a
part of Sheridan's troopers, in the First New York
Lincoln Cavalry in Company L., where he served for
eight months.
On March 6, 1867, Pulitzer became an
American citizen, and just two years later he won a
seat in the St. Louis state legislature as a Republican.
In 1884, Pulitzer was elected to the U.S. House of
Representatives from New York as a Democrat.
He served from March 4, 1885 until April 10, 1886,
resigning due to the pressure of journalistic duties.
102 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
In 1879, Joseph Pulitzer bought both the St.
Louis Dispatch and the St. Louis Post, merging the
two papers as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. With his
own paper, Pulitzer developed his role as a champion
of the common man, featuring exposes and a hard¬
hitting populist approach.
Putting aside serious health concerns, in
1883 Pulitzer negotiated the purchase of The New
York World, which was in financial straits. Charles
Dana, the editor of the rival New York Sun, attacked
Pulitzer in print, using derogatory terms like "Judas
Pulitzer." Pulitzer crusaded against public and private
corruption, filled the news columns with a spate of
sensationalized features, made the first extensive use
of illustrations, and staged news stunts. In one of the
most successful promotions, The World raised public
subscriptions for the building of a pedestal at the
entrance to the New York harbor so that the Statue
of Liberty, which was stranded in France awaiting
shipment, could be emplaced.
From 1896 to 1898, Pulitzer was in a bitter
49 x47 mm / Medallic Art Company
110 Bronze / 63 Pure Silver / 34 Gold-Plated Silver
I
circulation battle with William Randolph Hearst's
Journal, in which there were no apparent restraints
on sensationalism or fabrication of news. When the
Cubans rebelled against Spanish rule, Pulitzer and
Hearst both called for war against Spain after the
U.S. battleship Maine mysteriously blew up and sank
in Havana harbor on February 15, 1898. Congress
reacted to the outcry with a war resolution. After
the four-month war, Pulitzer withdrew from what
had become known as "yellow journalism," and The
World became more restrained. Pulitzer waged
courageous and often successful crusades against
corrupt practices in government and business. He was
responsible to a large extent for passage of antitrust
legislation and regulation of the insurance industry.
In May 1904, writing in The North American
Review in support of his proposal for the founding of
a school of journalism, Pulitzer summarized hiscredo:
"Our Republic and its press will rise or fall together.
An able, disinterested, public-spirited press, with
trained intelligence to know the right and courage to
do it, can preserve that public virtue without which
popular government is a sham and a mockery. A
cynical, mercenary, demagogic press will produce in
time a people as base as itself. The power to mould
the future of the Republic will be in the hands of the
journalists of future generations."
The Pulitzer Prizes were established in 1917 by
money bequeathed by Joseph Pulitzer to Columbia
University to recognize artistic and journalistic
achievements in the United States. The prizes are
given annually to award achievements in American
journalism and photography, as well as literature
and history, poetry, music and drama. The Columbia
School of Journalism opened in 1912, thanks to
Pulitzer's philanthropic bequest.
Jewish Americans have won Pulitzer Prizes
in many categories. Some of the winners in fiction
include Bernard Melamud, Philip Roth, Neil Simon,
Art Spiegelman, and Herman Wouk. Pulitzer winning
Jewish American playwrights and musicians include
Ira Gershwin, George S. Kaufman, Marvin Hamlisch,
Arthur Miller, Richard Rodgers, Stephen Sondheim,
and Wendy Wasserstein.
THE BACK STORY
One of Eugene Daub's rejected designs for
the obverse, and a preliminary drawing for the
reverse — that was deemed to have the figure
too small.
Mel Wacks /103
JAHF49 / 2018
HEDY LAMARR
1914 - 2000
Medalist: Eugene Daub
Obverse: Portrait, DAUB.
Reverse: Portion of patent, "Films have a certain place in time. Technology is forever," Hedy
Lamarr 1914-2000.
Hedy Lamarr (nee Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler)
was born to Jewish parents in 1914 in Vienna. In early
0.933, at a 9 e 18, s he starred in the movie Ecstasy,
where she gained worldwide fame for a brief nude
scene.
After she met Louis B. Mayer in Paris, he
persuaded her to change her name to Hedy Lamarr
and brought her to Hollywood. Lamarr made her
American film debut in Algiers (1938), opposite
Charles Boyer. According to one viewer, when her
face first appeared on the screen, "everyone gasped
— Lamarr's beauty literally took one's breath away."
Hedy made 18 films from 1940 to 1949. After leaving
MGM in 1945, she enjoyed her biggest success as
Delilah in Cecil B. DeMille's Samson and Delilah, the
highest-grossing film of 1949. Hedy Lamarr has a star
on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6247 Hollywood
Boulevard, adjacent to Vine Street.
During World War II, Lamarr learned that
radio-controlled torpedoes could easily be jammed,
thereby causing the torpedo to go off course. With
the knowledge she had gained about torpedoes
from her first husband, she thought of creating a
104 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
frequency-hopping signal that could not be tracked
or jammed. She contacted her friend, composer and
pianist George Antheil, to help her develop a device
for doing that — and he succeeded by synchronizing
a miniaturized player-piano mechanism with radio
signals.
Lamarr and Antheil drafted designs for the
frequency-hopping system, which they patented.
However, itwastechnologicallydifficultto implement,
and at that time the U.S. Navy was not receptive to
considering inventions coming from outside the
military — especially from a movie star.
Rather, Lamarr used her celebrity status to
sell war bonds. Under an arrangement in which she
would kiss anyone who purchased $25,000 worth of
bonds, she sold $7 million worth in one night.
It wasn't until the 1950s, that engineers began
experimenting with ideas documented byLamarrand
Antheil. Their work with spread spectrum technology
contributed to the development of GPS, Bluetooth,
and Wi-Fi. So, whenever anyone uses their cell phone
or GPS he or she should think of Hedy.
49 x47 mm / Highland Mint
140 Bronze / 60 Pure Silver / 30 Gold-Plated Silver
I
THE BACK STORY
Aug. 11, 1942. H. K. MARKEY ET AL 2,292,387
SECRET COMMUNICATION SYSTEM
Pllad June 10. 1941 2 Sh««t»-5h**t 2
Shown is part of Hedy Lamarr's
patent, a portion of which is
portrayed on the reverse of the
medal.
Mel Wacks/105
JAHF50 / 2019
RABBI ISAAC MAYER WISE
1819 -1900
Medalist: Eugene Daub
Obverse: Portrait, ISAAC MAYER WISE 1819-1900, DAUB.
Reverse: Torah breastplate, ISAAC MAYER WISE (Hebrew).
I
Isaac Mayer Wise was one of America's
outstanding Jews and a leading rabbi during the
19th Century. His major achievements were the
establishment of the Union of American Hebrew
Congregations in 1873, the Hebrew Union College in
1875, and the Central Conference of American Rabbis
in 1889.
Wise was born on March 29,1819, in Steingrub,
Bohemia. He was a brilliant student, and at the age of
nine, his father, a teacher, had taught him all he knew
about the Bible and the Talmud. Wise completed
his formal education by attending the University of
Prague and the University of Vienna for three years.
Atthe age of 23, in 1842, he appeared before a
Beth Din (a rabbinical court) consisting of three well-
known rabbis — Solomon Judah Rappaport, Samuel
Freund, and Ephraim Loeb Teweles — who together
conferred on him the title of rabbi. Two years later, he
married Therese Bloch, who was to give birth to ten
children.
Wise found that being a rabbi in Bohemia
brought him problems with the government, because
106 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
of the restrictions still in force against the Jews. He
decided to come to America because of its religious
freedom, arriving in New York on July 23, 1846.
At this time, he changed his name to Wise from its
original German spelling, Weiss.
Wise became the rabbi of Congregation Beth
El in Albany, N.Y., where he introduced choral singing,
confirmation to replace Bar Mitzvah, and the seating
of men and women together in pews for services. His
changes resulted in much disapproval. In 1850, on
the morning before the beginning of Rosh Hashanah,
Wise was dismissed at a rump meeting of the board
of directors. The next day havoc broke loose between
his followers and those who opposed him. Soon after,
a group broke away from Beth El and, with Rabbi
Wise, established a new Reform synagogue called
Anshe Emet (“Men of Truth").
In 1854, Wise went to Cincinnati, Ohio, to
become rabbi of Beth K.K. B'nai Yeshurun, a Reform
congregation. (Since 1931, the temple has been
known as the Isaac M. Wise Temple.) He stayed there
49 x47 mm / Highland Mint
130 Bronze / 60 Pure Silver / 30 Gold-Plated Silver
the rest of his life. It was from there that he tried
creating a national organization of congregations. He
found this a difficult task, as the Orthodox rabbis were
at odds with the Reform movement. Nevertheless,
despite his setbacks, Wise continued to advocate a
union of congregations, a common prayer book, and
a college to educate and train American rabbis.
Parts of his dreams came true when, in 1873,
delegates from 34 Reform congregations met in
Cincinnati and organized the Union of American
Hebrew Congregations. Two years later, in July 1875,
the Union established the Hebrew Union College,
the first Jewish seminary in the United States. Wise
became its president and teacher.
Wise was also an organizer and mover in the
establishment of the Central Conference of American
Rabbis, in 1889. Elected its president, he served until
he died on March 26,1900. This conference adopted
the Union Prayer Book that would be used by all
Reform congregations.
Bibliography: Jewish Heroes & Heroines of America:
150 True Stories of American Jewish Heroism, by
Seymour Brody, published by Lifetime Books, Inc.,
Hollywood, FL.
THE BACK STORY
The portrait on the medal's obverse was based on a plaque of Rabbi Isaac
MayerWise by Boris Schatz.The reverse of the medal is based on a breastplate
by Andrew Messmer, presented to Rabbi Isaac MayerWise in 1899, on his 80th
birthday. Both are in the collection of the Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati.
Mel Wacks/107
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MEL WACKS
Mel's introduction
to coin collecting
came in a small leather
pouch, given to him by
his dad around 1949.
As a true collector, Mel
still has the pouch and
the coins that launched
a lifetime hobby. He
was initially interested
in United States cents,
and assembled a complete collection of Indian Head
Cents (1859-1909) and Lincoln Cents (beginning with
1909). In his late teens, Mel began to collect United
States Patterns (proposed coin designs), and in his
twenties he discovered ancient Judaean coins.
Mel became an expert on coins of the Bible
and wrote The Handbook of Biblical Numismatics,
which you can read at www.amuseum.org/book.
Perhaps Mel's greatest love grew to be art medals.
He doesn't remember what kindled this interest, but
it combines Mel's appreciation of art and history.
Mel's attention quickly turned from collecting
medals to producing them. In 1969, he launched
the Jewish-American Hall of Fame
series, under the auspices of the Judah
L. Magnes Museum, in Berkeley,
California — and this is now the longest
running series of non-government art
medals issued in the United States. To
date, over 25,000 medals have been
purchased by collectors and museums
around the world — raising nearly a
quarter of a million dollars forthe Judah
L. Magnes Museum, the American
Jewish Historical Society (where the
Jewish-American Hall of Fame has been
a division since 2001), the Cincinnati
Skirball Museum, the American
Numismatic Society, etc.
Besides overseeing this project,
Mel Wacks also has created designs for the reverses
of several of the medals: 1995 Elie Wiesel, 1996
Houdini, and 2009 40th Anniversary of the Jewish-
American Hall of Fame, as well as suggesting artistic
concepts for others, like the 1998 Titanic, 2007 Moe
Berg, 2015 Gertrude Berg, etc.
Mel wrote the text and helped design the
web site www.amuseum.org/jahf, that is visited by
over a million people every year. Portrait plaques
(identical with the medals' obverse designs) are on
permanent exhibit at the Virginia Holocaust Museum
in Richmond (see picture below), and a complete set
of medals are part of the permanent collection of the
Cincinnati Skirball Museum.
Mel Wacks has been a member of the
American Numismatic Association for over 50 years;
is a Fellow of the American Numismatic Society; and
a Member of the Numismatic Literary Guild, where
Mel has won four awards (1999 Best All-Around
Portfolio, 2000 U.S. Magazines Best Coin Article,
2002 Best Non-Commercial Web Site, 2007 Best
Writer NLG Newsletter).
In addition, Mel has also been President of the
American Israel Numismatic Association from 2002
to the present, and has served since 2017 as Editor
of their quarterly magazine, The Shekel, Journal of
108 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
Israel and Jewish History and Numismatics. Mel has
had over 100 articles published in leading numismatic
publications, including The Numismatist, Coin World,
Numismatic News, World Coin News, Numismatic
Scrapbook Magazine, The Medal, etc.
Commendation from the Board of Supervisors,
County of Alameda, State of California for, in part,
producing "one of the most important series of
medals in recent years" (see below).
Mel is on the Advisory Council of American
In 2009, Mel Wacks was presented with a Jewish Heritage Month.
Jewish-American Hall of Fame
Division of the American Historical Society
40 th Anniversary
WHEREAS, the creation of The Jewish-American Hall of Fame was announced by Mel Wacks on April
14, 1969 with the enthusiastic support of Seymour Fromer, Director and Founder of the Judah L Magnes
Museum in Berkeley, California; the year before, Julian Levin contributed $500 to get The Jewish-American
Hall of Fame started, and in its more than 30 years of association, raised $171,045 for the Magnes
Museum, of which $40,000 created the Mel & Esther Wacks Educational Fund in 1996; and,
WHEREAS, the unique shape of Jewish-American Hall of Fame medals was created by long-time
Berkeley resident Victor Ries, who designed the Judah L Magnes and Touro Synagogue medals; Victor’s
sister Gerta Ries Wiener of Berkeley, created eleven medals from the age of 72 into her 90s, and Marika
Somogyi, also of Berkeley, sculpted three medals for the Hall of Fame; and,
WHEREAS, The Jewish-American Hall of Fame, through its award-winning web site
www.amuseum.org/jafif, routinely attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors annually, many of them
students from Alameda County, as well as throughout the United States and around the world; and,
WHEREAS, over 20,000 Jewish-American Hall of Fame medals have been acquired by individuals,
synagogues and museums around the world, many stamped with the name of the Magnes Museum on the
edge; these are ambassadors of good will that will not decay or disappear with time; some of those who
have been honored include: Albert Einstein (artist Robert Russin), Louis Brandeis (Gerta Ries Weiner),
George Gershwin (Robert Russin), Golda Meir (Gerta Ries Wiener), Levi Strauss (Hal Reed), Isaac Stern
(Gerta Ries Wiener), and Benny Goodman (Marika Somogyi); and,
WHEREAS, The Jewish-American Hall of Fame is the longest series of art medals being produced in the
United States; it is also considered to be one of the most important series of medals in recent years
(Catalog of the XXII Congress of Federation Internationale de la Medaille, Helsinki);
THEREFORE, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, on June 2 , 2009 , does
commend The Jewish-American Hall of Fame for its forty years of promoting unique
and accomplished Jewish Americans and sharing their life history with Alameda
County residents, and express great appreciation to its legendary founder and
executive director, Mel Wacks, for making the County of Alameda a better place in
which to live, and extend its best wishes for continued success in the future.
Alice Lai-Bitker, President
Supervisor, Third District
Gail Steele
Keith Carson
Supervisor, Fifth District
Mel Wacks /109
ABOUT THE MEDALISTS
Stephen Scher, writes in The Currency of
Fame — Portrait Medals of the Renaissance: "One
of the most original and complete means of fulfilling
the Renaissance desire for fame and immortality
was the portrait medal, for within the confines of
this small, durable, portable, and easily reproduced
object contained a wealth of information about the
subject represented."
One of the earliest Jewish portrait medals:
Gracia Nasi c. 1558, probably by Pastorino de'Pastorini.
Image courtesy ofBusso Peus Nacht.
While, during the Renaissance, portrait
medals were principally commissioned by the subject
himself (or herself) and given to family and friends, the
subjects of the Jewish-American Hall of Fame have
to merit their nomination by their accomplishments.
The artist must sculpt 8" diameter models,
which are then reduced to 2" diameter steel dies.
The reduction process precisely reproduces even the
most subtle modeling details.
The Jewish-American Hall of Fame has
commissioned some of the finest medalists in
America (and overseas as well) to create medals of
enduring artistic and historic merit.
Our medalists are listed in the order of the
number of medals that they sculpted for the Jewish-
American Hall of Fame series.
Eugene Daub at unveiling of his Rosa Parks statue.
Eugene Daub, has created more Jewish-
American Hall of Fame medals than anyone else —
12 from 2007 through 2019 — including Ruth Bader
Ginsburg (2013), Joseph Pulitzer (2017) and Hedy
Lamarr (2018).
Eugene Daub is also one of America's leading
sculptors of public monuments. His sculpture of Rosa
Parks was the first commission of a full-sized statue
approved and funded by the U.S. Congress since
1873. It was installed in the National Statuary Hall in
the United States Capitol on February 27, 2013 in a
ceremony attended by President Obama, House and
Senate leaders, and Civil Rights activists.
110 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
GERTA RIES WIENER
(1898 - 2000)
Gerta Ries Wiener was a multi-talented artist,
sculptor, illustrator, puppet-maker, etc. long before
she created her first medal at the age of 70. She
created eleven medals for the Jewish-American Hall
of Fame from 1971 through 1994, including Golda
Meir (1978), Isaac Stern (1982) and Emma Lazarus
(1983)-
The letters, referring to her development
of the Jewish-American Hall of Fame medal
designs, that Gerta wrote to Mel Wacks are now
in the collection of the Archives of American Art,
Smithsonian Institution.
HAL REED
(1921 - 2003)
■
Hal Reed learned to create bas relief maps in
the Army, and developed this talent into the ability to
produce 3-dimensional designs for medals.
He created five medals for the Jewish-
American Hall of Fame, including Jonas Salk (1980),
Hank Greenberg (1991) and Houdini (1996), as well as
several special medals listed in Appendix B.
Hal also created numerous paintings,
sculptures, collector plates, etc.
ALEX SHAGIN
(BORN 1947)
% I
Alex Shagin created six Jewish-American Hall of Fame medals
between 1995 and 2002, including Elie Wiesel (1995), Barbra Streisand
(1997) and the First Jewish Settlers in America (1999). He also produced
a number of special issue medals ranging from Natan Shcharansky in
1982 to Arthur Welsh in 2012. See Appendix B for the full list.
Alex Shagin was formerly a medalist at the Leningrad Mint,
before emigrating to America, seeking religious and artistic freedom.
Mel Wacks /111
MARIKA SOMOGYI
(BORN 1939)
PAUL YINCZE
(1907-1994)
Marika Somogyi sculpted three Jewish-
American Hall of Fame medals, honoring Benny
Goodman in 1989, Leonard Bernstein in 1993, and
Arthur Miller in 2000. She also created the Jewish-
American Hall of Fame Irving Berlin plaque in 1988,
and numerous special issue medals honoring Kurt
Weill, Judah L. Magnes and Raoul Wallenberg — all
in 1982 — through the Shoah (1992). See Appendix B
for the full list.
As a child survivor of the Holocaust, Marika
sculpted one of the only monuments dedicated to
the victims Kristallnacht. This stood for many years
at the Magnes Museum before being taken down,
due to deterioration.
Vincze's self-
portrait medal
commemorating his
yoth birthday.
Paul Vincze
was originally from
Hungary, but he later
lived in England and then
in the south of France. In
later life he was often called "The Dean of Medalists,"
because of the quantity and quality of his output, as
well as the celebrity of his subjects, who often sat for
their portraits — including Prime Minister Winston
Churchill and President Harry S. Truman. Vincze is
also famous for having created official medals for all
of Shakespeare's plays.
Paul Vincze created three medals for the
Jewish-American Hall of Fame. These are the only
round medals in the series, since he declined to use
the unique rounded trapezoidal shape of the others.
His medals commemorate Haym Salomon (1973),
The Jews Who Helped Columbus — Abravanel,
Santangel and Zacuto (1986) — also, Columbus and
the Expulsion of the Jews (1992).
ROBERT RUSSIN
(1914 - 2007)
Prof. Robert Russin working on Einstein clay model.
Robert Russin created three medals for the
Jewish-American Hall of Fame — Albert Einstein
(1970), George Gershwin (1972), and Isaac Bashevis
Singer (1984).
Russin was best known for his public
sculptures, by one account numbering more than
400 worldwide, including a massive bronze bust
of Abraham Lincoln — called the Abraham Lincoln
Memorial Monument — which was originally
dedicated in 1959 at the highest point on the Lincoln
Highway in Wyoming, and the "Spirit of Life"
fountain at the City of Hope National Medical Center
in Duarte, California.
112 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
VICTOR RIES
(1907-2013)
Victor Ries — still working at 100.
Victor Ries not only sculpted two medals in
the Jewish-American Hall of Fame series — Judah
L. Magnes (1969) and Touro Synagogue (1977) —
but he also created the unique rounded trapezoidal
shape of all the medals (except those by Paul Vincze).
Mel Wacks, Director of the Jewish-American Hall of
Fame, often says that "the success of this series is
due in large part because of their unusual shape."
The promotion for Metal Man, the
documentary about Victor Ries' life, indicates: "As
both a highly regarded teacher and visionary artist,
Victor Ries' work has earned great respect. Victor's
mastery of metal and the range of his work, from
small jewelry pieces to large scale art installations,
are featured in synagogues and churches."
ONE-MEDAL ARTISTS
KAREN WORTH
(BORN 1927)
Karen Worth designed her first medal for
the Society of Medalists in 1963. Since that time,
she has designed more than 600 coins and medals,
including the Jewish-American Hall of Fame
commemorative for Samuel Gompers and Sidney
Hillman, issued in 2004.
JIM LICARETZ
(BORN 1949)
Jim Licaretz worked for the United States
Mint as a sculptor-engraver from 1986-1989 and
again from 2006-2016; he has more than 10 executed
coin designs to his credit. Jim has also worked for the
Franklin Mint, and has served as a master sculptor for
toymaker Mattel. Jim created the 'Rosie' Rosenthal
medal forthe Jewish-American Hall of Fame in 2005.
Mel Wacks /113
VIRGINIA JANSSEN
1 DANIEL ALTSHULER
(BORN 1962)
1 (BORN 1965)
Virginia Janssen
designed the 2007
Jewish-American Hall of
Fame medal honoring
Lillian Wald. Virginia has
created designs for the
American Numismatic
Association and other
organizations. Virginia
wrote the chapter The
Art of Die-Engraving in
Coinage of the Americas
Conference Proceedings
13,1999.
Daniel Altshuler has had his sculptures
featured at The White House, the Carter Center
Presidential Museum and Library, the Texas A&M
Museum, Brookgreen Gardens, the Helen Keller
Foundation, the Thoreau Institute Museum and
Library, and The Royal Mint. In 2012, Altshuler's busts
of Francis Crick and James D. Watson were installed
in the permanent
collection of the
Nobel Museum
in Stockholm,
Sweden. Daniel
Altshuler created
the medal
honoring Gertude
Elion for the
Jewish-American
Hall of Fame in
2011.
I
Altshuler sculpting clay
portrait of Gertrude Elion.
Jacques Schnier
created the Herbert
H. Lehman medal
(1974) for the Jewish-
American Hall of
Fame. Schnier's public
commissions embraced
extremes of scale,
from the design and
execution in 1936 of
the commemorative
half dollar for the
opening of the San
Francisco-Oakland Bay
Bridge, to monumental
statues and bas-
reliefs for the Golden
Gate International
Exposition of 1939-40.
Jacques Schnier at the
Judah L. Magnes Museum.
114 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
CALLIGRAPHY
Mel Wacks (born 1938) created the
calligraphy, based on the fonts developed by David
Mekelburg, for the reverse of the Elie Wiesel (1995),
Houdini (1996) and Mel Wacks (2009) Jewish-
American Hall of Fame medals. As coordinator of
the Jewish-American Hall of Fame medals, Mel also
influenced many of the designs; his name appears on
the reverse of the Titanic medal (1998).
Susan Fisher was a calligrapher, who designed
the English and Yiddish reverse of the Isaac Bashevis
Singer medal, issued by the Jewish-American Hall of
Fame in 1984, using
a quote personally
supplied by Singer.
Wacks at the opening
of the Jewish-
American Hall
of Fame exhibit at the
Virginia Holocaust
Museum.
APPENDIX A
WOODEN SHEKELS
ISSUED BY THE JUDAH L. MAGNES MUSEUM AND
JEWISH-AMERICAN HALL OF FAME
JAHFW1 /1968
WOODEN SHEKEL
Models for 1968 Wooden Shekel:
Ancient Judaean Shekel, Year
2=67/8 C.E. and Judah L. Magnes
Museum, at 2911 Russell Street,
Berkeley, California.
Prototype, with hand written
inscriptions. Only 2 made.
1968 Wooden Shekel by Mel
Wacks. 1,000 made.
Mel Wacks/115
WOODEN PRUTAH
JAHFW2 /1969
Models for 1969 Wooden
Prutah: Ancient Judaean
Prutah, Year 2=67/8 C.E. and
Beth Sholom, San Leandro,
California, early 20th century.
1969 Wooden Prutah by Mel
Wacks. 1,000 made.
WOODEN YEHUD OBOL
JAHFW3 /1970
Models for 1970 Wooden
Yehud Obol: Ancient Yehud
Obol, Persian Period in Judaea,
4th century B.C.E. and Jewish
Sabbath/Festival Lamp, Germany,
14th century.
1970 Wooden Yehud Obol by Mel
Wacks. 1,000 made.
116 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
JAHFW4 / 2000
EINSTEIN WOODEN
CYBERSHEKEL
Model for 2000 Einstein Wooden
Cybershekel: Albert Einstein medal
(designed by Robert Russin), issued by the
Jewish-American Hall of Fame, 1970.
X\^ V OF ^/ 0
amuseum.org/jahf
CV /v
2000 Einstein Wooden Cybershekel
by Alex Shagin. 1,000 made.
JAHFW5 / 2009
WOODEN SHEKEL
Models for 2009 Wooden Shekel:
Ancient Judaean Shekel, Year
2=67/8 C.E. and Judah L. Magnes
medal (designed by Victor Ries),
issued by the Jewish-American
Hall of Fame, 1969.
^°SE UM.O^ V
2009 Wooden Shekel by Mel
Wacks. 1,000 made.
Mel Wacks /117
APPENDIX B
SPECIAL
COMMEMORATIVE MEDALS
ISSUED BY THE JEWISH-AMERICAN HALL OF FAME
JAHFS1 /1978
Camp David Peace Dollar by Mel Wacks & Adam Cool (i,ooo). 38 mm. Counterstamped.
JAHFS2 /1981
Benjamin Zweifach by Hal Reed, bronze (50), pure silver (3). 63 mm.
Commissioned by U.S.A. Microcirculatory Society. Metal Arts. Struck.
118 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
JAHFS3 /1981
Fred Kahan by Hal Reed, bronze (33), silver-plated bronze (27), gold-plated bronze (i), pure silver (6). 63 mm.
Commissioned by Bnai Zion. Metal Arts. Struck.
JAHFS4 /1982
Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya by Marika Somogyi, from a concept by Mel Wacks, bronze (12?).
100 x 102 mm. Cast.
Photos reduced by 25%.
Mel Wacks /119
JAHFS5 /1982
Judah L. Magnes/Magnes Museum by Marika Somogyi, bronze (35),
silver-plated bronze (2). 107 x 114 mm. Cast.
Photos reduced by 25%.
JAHFS6 /1982
Raoul Wallenberg by Marika Somogyi, bronze (116). 112 x 114 mm. 105 mm. Cast.
Photos reduced by 25%.
120 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
JAHFS7 /1982
Natan Shcharansky by Alex Shagin, bronze (70). 100 mm. Cast.
Photos reduced by 25%.
JAHFS8 /1984
Remember the Eleven by Alex Shagin, bronze (110), silver (117). 38 mm.
+ Pieces sold by issuing organization. Commissioned by Rabbi David Baron. Johnson Matthey. Struck.
Mel Wacks /121
JAHFS9 /1985
David Ben Gurion by Marika Somogyi, bronze (81). 95 x 105 mm. Cast.
Photos reduced by 25%.
JAHFSIO / 1986
Marc Chagall Centennial by Marika Somogyi, silver (183), gold (33). 53 x 45 mm. Cast.
122 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
JAHFS11 /1986
Statue of Liberty Centennial by Marika Somogyi, bronze (?), 111 mm. Cast.
Also in bronze (47), silver (?) and gold plated silver (?). 44 mm. S. Johnson (Italy). Struck.
Photos of large medal reduced by 25%.
JAHFS12/1988
Sherlock Holmes by Marika Somogyi, silver (104), gold (9). 42 x 55 mm. Cast.
Mel Wacks /123
JAHFS13 /1988
Peace designed by Nat Sobel, sculpted by Marcel Jovine (restrike), bronze (345), gold-plated bronze (16),
silver (100), gold (29). 62 mm. Medallic Art Co. Struck.
JAHFS14 /1988
J. F. Kennedy by Paul Vincze, bronze (118), silver (65), gold (5). 56 mm. Medallic Art Co. Struck.
JAHFS15 /1989
Charlie Chaplin by Marika Somogyi, silver (50), gold (2). 50 mm. Cast.
124 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
JAHFS16 /1990
Jewish Cultural Achievement Award by Marika Somogyi, bronze with ribbon (80). 76 mm.
Commissioned by the National Foundation for Jewish Culture. Tri-State Mint (Medallic Art Co.). Struck.
JAHFS17 /1990
JAHFS17/1990: Yosemite by Marika Somogyi, bronze (17). 90 mm. Cast.
Photos reduced by 25%.
Mel Wacks /125
JAHFS18 / 1991
Agatha Christie by Marika Somogyi, bronze & leather (30). Medal 65 x 88 mm. Cast.
Photos reduced by 25%.
JAHFS19 / 1993
Ruth Bader Ginsburg/Jewish-American Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary by Hal Reed, silver (150), gold-plated
silver (50). 39 mm. Continental Coin Co. Struck.
126 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
JAHFS20 /1994
Oscar Schindler by Marika Somogyi, bronze (38). 102 x 106 mm. Cast.
+ bronze (999 limit) made by IGCMC. 98 x 100 mm. Cast.
Those made by IGCMC. 98 x 100 mm. Cast.
Photos of large medal reduced by 25%.
JAHFS21 /1994
World War II Victory by Marika Somogyi, bronze (21). 85 x 75 mm. Cast.
Mel Wacks /127
JAHFS22 /1995
Jerusalem by Marika Somogyi, bronze, (33). 113 x 126 mm. Cast
128 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
JAHFS23 /1995
David/Jerusalem by Alex Shagin, bonded bronze, (55). 158 x 110 mm. Cast.
Photos reduced by 25%.
JAHFS24 /1997
Shoah by Marika Somogyi, bronze (40). 58 mm. Cast.
Mel Wacks/129
JAHFS25 /1997
Widow's Mite by Alex Shagin, bonded bronze and ancient Hasmonean coin (26). 130 x 135 mm. Cast.
Photos reduced by 25%.
JAHFSP1 / 2000
Aaron Copeland by Alex Shagin, bonded bronze (unique). Est. 150 x 150 mm. Cast.
Photo reduced by 25%.
130 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
JAHFS26 / 2004
350 Years of Jewish Life in America by Dana Krinsky, bronze (i,ooo), silver (91),
gold-plated silver (57). 75 mm. Commissioned by Celebrate 350. Highland Mint. Struck.
JAHFS27 / 2004
Haym Salomon/For God and Country obverse by Paul Vincze, reverse by Mel Wacks,
bronze (12) 63.5 mm., silver (4) 63.5 mm., gold-plated silver (8) 63.5 mm., silver (30) 22 mm.,
X A oz. gold (2) 22 mm. Commissioned by Mainstay Films (James Arcuri). Highland Mint. Struck.
Mel Wacks /131
JAHFS28 / 2006
Haym Salomon/FEGS obverse by Paul Vincze, reverse by Mel Wacks, bronze (104). 63.5 mm.
Commissioned by FEGS (Federation Employment and Guidance Service). Highland Mint. Struck.
JAHFS29 / 2010
Over 1,000 Years of Jewish Life in China by Jamie Franki, bronze (ioo), silver-plated bronze (55),
gold-plated bronze (37). 75 mm. Greco Industries. Struck.
132 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
JAHFS30 / 2012
Arthur Welsh by Alex Shagin, bronze (50), silver-plated bronze (35), gold-plated bronze (15) + unnumbered
bronze (25), silver-plated bronze (15) and gold-plated bronze (10). 56 mm.
Commissioned by the Greater Washington Historical Society. Medallic Art Co. Struck.
JAHFS31 / 2012
Haym Salomon/K. K. Mikvek Israel obverse by Paul Vincze, reverse by Frank Gasparro,
antique bronze (3), prooflike gold-plated bronze with ribbon (50). 76 mm.
Commissioned by Congregation Mikveh Israel (Philadelphia). Medallic Art Co. Struck.
JAHFS32 / 2012
Haym Salomon/For God and Country obverse by Paul Vincze, reverse by Mel Wacks, bronze (250).
22 mm. Highland Mint. Struck.
Mel Wacks /133
JAHFS33 / 2013
Rebecca and Seymour Fromer (Fromer Scholar Award) by Joel Iskowitz assisted by Mel Wacks,
bronze (65) + bronze with ribbon (25). 57 mm. Commissioned by Magnes Collection.
Medalcraft Mint. Struck.
JAHFS34 / 2017
Four Chaplains Award by Eugene Daub, nickel with ribbon (50) + (3) Artist Proofs.
70 mm. Commissioned by Army Chaplain Corps. Medalcraft Mint. Struck.
134 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
JAHFS35 / 2018
Emma Lazarus Statue of Liberty Award by Gerta Ries Wiener,
bronze Artist's Proof (12) + bronze with ribbon (40). 49 x 47 mm.
Commissioned by the American Jewish Historical Society. Medalcraft Mint. Struck.
JAHFS36 / 2019
Gratz College Award, designed by Katherine Cohen (1859-1914) and sculpted by Phyllis Hamilton,
bronze Artist's Proof (8) + silver with ribbon (25). 63.5 mm.
Commissioned by Gratz College. Highland Mint. Struck.
Mel Wacks /135
APPENDIX C
HOW JEWISH-AMERICAN
HALL OF FAME MEDALS
ARE MADE
First, the portrait or other
design is modeled inside a
large (about 8") Plaster of
Paris basin that isthe same
shape as the final medal.
Shown is Rabbi Isaac
Mayer Wise artwork.
Here is the final Plaster of
Paris model, with details
and lettering added.
136 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
The plaster model is
converted to a negative
hard epoxy model (the
same size), which is then
mounted on a three-
dimensional reducing
machine, that cuts a steel
die in the exact size of the
final medal — one die for
the obverse ("heads" side)
and another die for the
reverse ("tails" side).
Pair of steel dies for
obverse and reverse of the
Jonas Salk medal.
The minting process
begins with blanks, in the
exact shape of the medal,
cut out from sheets of
metal, using a trim tool
(like a hefty cookie cutter).
Mel Wacks /137
The first strike of the
Herbert H. Lehman medal,
using a multi-ton press
brings out rudimentary
details.
The second strike brings
out additional details.
The third strike is almost
sufficient, but tip of nose
and portions of star are not
fully struck up.
The fourth strike brings out
all of the details and relief
of the medals. Note that
other Jewish-American
Hall of Fame medals
may have required fewer
strikes.
138 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
Mel Wacks/139
Finally, the edges are marked with some or all of
the following: mint, metal, serial number, etc.
140 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
APPENDIX D
JEWISH-AMERICAN HALL OF
FAME MEDALS BOXED SETS
The first six Jewish-American Hall of Fame
medals (Magnes, Einstein, Brandeis, Gershwin,
Salomon and Lehman) boxed in a custom wood
display case were promoted and sold by Medallic
Art Co. beginning in 1976. According to a letter from
MACO dated December 7, 1976, "Strike Order" was
150 bronze sets, 75 silver sets and 25 vermeil (gold-
plated silver) sets. A letterfrom MACO dated February
14,1979 indicates that the following numbers of sets
were "Scrap": no bronze, 33 silver and 17 vermeil.
Therefore the net sets sold were 150 bronze, 42 silver
and 8 vermeil.
Surviving records indicate bronze serial
numbered 401-484 and 801-811 were sold by the
Jewish-American Hall of Fame. And records indicate
that the following serial numbered silver sets were
sold by the Jewish-American Hall of Fame: 01 and
401-456. Other serial numbers were sold by MACO.
There are no surviving records for the vermeil
(gold-plated silver) sets, except that number 19 was
sold by the Jewish-American Hall of Fame.
These serial numbers were intended to be
higher than the serial numbers that the Jewish-
American Hall of Fame sold — to avoid duplicating
numbers. The total quantities of medals produced
for these sets were within the announced mintage
limits, and are included in the mintages for the first
six medals — indicated in this book.
Mel Wacks/141
High Relief Portraits By Famous Sculptors
As Official Medalist to the Museum for this privately commissioned series, we
were very pleased to have been able to offer our established collectors —such as your¬
self— an opportunity to acquire a rare matched-number set of the Jewish-American
Medallic Hall of Fame.
Some of the finest sculptors in America —Paul Vincze, Jacques Schnier, Pro¬
fessor Robert Russin, Victor Ries, Gerta Ries Wiener— are represented in this unique
series, and the men they commemorate are fitting subjects for their talent.
It is no small challenge for an artist to sculpt a portrait of the well-known fea¬
tures of a genius like Albert Einstein... or to capture the dignity of a Justice Brandeis;
the spirit of a Gershwin; the vitality of a Herbert Lehman. In the case of the Haym
Salomon medal, sculptor Vincze had no photograph or painting to work from, as no
known likeness of the famous patriot exists, nor is there any written description of
him. Vincze spent many hours reading about and researching his subject, forming a
picture of the man and his character in his mind, and studied a picture of Salomon’s
daughter for further reference. It is almost certain now that Vincze’s fine sculpture will
become the accepted “portrait” of Haym Salomon in years to come.
Perhaps no portrait of the man himself could ever express so eloquently the life
and work of Judah Leon Magnes as well as does the Jerusalem scene portrayed on the
obverse of the Magnes commemorative. Ries’ depiction of the Library of the Hebrew
University —which Magnes founded— and the Shrine of the Book, are powerfully
conceived, enduring tributes to this man of determination and compassion. Sculptor
Victor Ries has already won numerous awards for his outstanding work in the field of
Jewish ceremonial art, and this commemorative is truly one of his finest works. The
technique he used to sculpt the model for the obverse —working directly in bronze
rather than in plaster— in itself makes the medal a collector’s rarity.
Originally issued one per year, beginning in 1969, in very small limited editions
of Fine Silver and Solid Bronze, each medal has been individually hallmarked and
serially numbered. Because of their unique shape, the depth of the relief, the quality of
the work, and the prominence of both subjects and artists, we are certain that this
matched-number set of fine art medals will be a valuable, long treasured addition to
your collection.
This brochure accompanied each boxed set of the first six Jewish-American Hall of Fame medals.
142 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
APPENDIX E
CINCINNATI SKIRBALL MUSEUM PRESENTS
Striking Medals
50 YEARS OF THE JEWISH-AMERICAN HALL OF FAME
The exhibit, "Striking Medals: 50 Years of the
Jewish-American Hall of Fame," at the Cincinnati
Skirball Museum on the historic campus of Hebrew
Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, marked
the first time that a complete collection of this
historic series has ever been on public display. The
Skirball Museum was the first formally established
Jewish museum in the United States, founded in 1913
as the Union Museum.
In addition to showing two sides of each
medal issued annually from 1969 through 2019, The
exhibition featured all 50 medals, produced annually
from 1969 through 2019 in duplicate, so that the
reverse of each could be viewed, as well as displays
that chronicle the history and origin of portrait
medals; the process of creating the medals from
original sketches to clay and plaster models and dies;
and texts and videos about the accomplishments of
the inductees.
Jews have made important contributions
to the history and culture of America for hundreds
of years in all fields of endeavor, and many of their
stories were told in this exhibition.
Visitors viewed the Jewish-American Hall of
Fame medals, displayed in the following categories:
Early History of Jewish Portrait Medals (Gracia Nasi
and Gershom Mendes Seixas), Christopher Columbus
& The Jews (Don Isaac Abravanel, Abraham Zacuto,
et al.), Beginnings of Jewish Life in America (Asser
Levy, Touro Synagogue, et al.), Music & Literature
(Emma Lazarus, George Gershwin, et al.), Pop Culture
(Houdini, Hedy Lamarr, et al.), Science & Medicine
(Albert Einstein, Judith Resnik, et al.), Advocacy
& Education (Ernestine Rose, Judah L. Magnes, et
al.Cinci
Abby Schwartz, Director of the Cincinnati
Skirball Museum, with Mel Wacks, at the
entrance to the exhibit.
Mel Wacks/143
APPENDIX F
JAHF51 / 2020
DARA TORRES
B. 1967
The Jewish-American Hall of Fame medal
series is continuing - and here is a sneak preview of
our next medal, by Eugene Daub. The reverse design
will be identical to our 2009 medal.
Dara Torres is arguably the fastest female
swimmer in America. She entered her first
international swimming competition at age 14 and
competed in her first Olympic Games a few years
later in 1984.
At the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, Dara
became the oldest swimmer to compete in the
Olympic Games. When she took three silver medals
home - including the infamous heartbreaking
50-meter freestyle race where she missed the Gold
by l/iooth of a second - America loved her all the
more for her astonishing achievement and her good-
natured acceptance of the results.
In total, Dara has competed in five Olympic
Games and has won 12 medals in her entire Olympic
career(Jewish American swimmerMarkSpitzhaswon
only 11 Olympic medals). In her first Olympic games in
1984, she won a gold medal for the 100-meter relay.
She went on to compete in the 1988,1992, 2000, and
2008 Olympics, winning five medals in 2000, more
than anyone else on her team. In 2008, the oldest-
ever Olympic swimmer at age 41 (and having given
birth only a year earlier), she won two silver medals
for 100-meter medley relay and 50-meter freestyle,
breaking the American freestyle record she had set
at age fifteen. Over the course of her career, she won
four gold, four silver, and four bronze medals at the
Olympics and broke the American record speeds
for 50-meter freestyle ten times, more than any
American swimmer in any event. In the Wikipedia
List of Multiple Olympic Medalists, Dara is in 15th
place worldwide (including both men and women),
in 4th place among Americans, in 2nd place among
American women, and in 1st place among all Jewish
Americans.
Aside from her amazing accomplishments
in the pool, Dara has talents on dry land as well. A
composed commentator, guest host and strong
interviewee, she has appeared on Fox News, ESPN,
CNN, Piers Morgan Tonight, Today Show, Good
Morning America, Kelly and Regis, and many others.
Additionally, Dara was the first female athlete ever
to be featured in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit
Issue, and in 2009, won the ESPY award for "Best
Comeback." To add to Dara's accolades, she was
also named one of the "Top Female Athletes of
the Decade" by Sports Illustrated Magazine and in
2019, Dara was inducted into the U.S. Olympic and
Paralympic Hall of Fame.
Now a top-selling author, her memoir, "Age is
Just a Number: Achieve Your Dreams at Any Stage
in Your Life," published in April, 2009 and was listed
as one of the top 25 best-selling business books by
June. Her second book, "Gold Medal Fitness: A
Revolutionary 5-Week Program" hit stands in May,
2010 and is now a New York Times Best-Seller.
Source: daratorres.com
144 /Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
THE BACK STORY
Original sketch by Eugene Daub
Intermediate clay (left) and final Plaster-of-Paris model (right). Note that Dara
Torres' name is in a different location on each of the below images.
MelWacks /
350 Years of Jewish Life in
America 131
Abravanel, Don Isaac 40
Altman, Diana Cohen 4
Altshuler, Daniel 114
American Jewish Historical
Society 4, 35 , *35
Army Chaplain Corps 134
Ben Gurion, David 122
Berg, Gertrude 98-99
Berg, Moe 80-81
Berle, Milton 84-85
Berlin, Irving 46-47
Beth Sholom, San Leandro,
California 116
Bible (Quotes) 14-15,16, 20-21,
68, 82-83,121, 122 i 128,
130,131,132,133
Bnai Zion 119
Boxed Sets of Jewish-American
Hall of Fame medals 141-
142
Brandeis, Louis B. 10-11
Camp David Peace Dollar 118
Carl XVI Gustaf, King of Sweden
90
Carnegie Hall 32-33
Chagall, Marc 122
Chaplain, Charlie 124
Christie, Agatha 126
Cincinnati Skirball Museum 4,
143
Cohen, Gil 79
Cohen, Katherine 135
Columbus, Christopher 40-41,
54-55
Congregation Mikveh Israel
Philadelphia 74,133
Congregation Shearith Israel (The
Spanish-Portuguese
Synagogue) 18, 69
Cool, Adam 118
Copeland, Aaron 130
Daub, Eugene 80-81, 84-85, 86-
87, 88-89, 92-93, 94-95,
96-97, 98-99,100-101,
102-103,104-105,106,
110,134,144-145
David 129
Einstein, Albert 8-9,116
Elion, Gertrude 90-91
FEGS (Federation Employment
and Guidance Service)
132
Feldberg, Michael 4
Ferdinand V, King of Castile 40
Fisher, Susan 37,114
Four Chaplains 96-97,134
Frankel, Jacob 96
Franki, Jamie 132
Fromer, Rebecca 134
Fromer, Seymour 4,11, 23, 39,
134
Gasparro, Frank 133
Gershwin, George 12-13
Ginsburg, Ruth Bader 94-95,126
Goldberg, Molly (see Berg,
Gertrude)
Gompers, Samuel 76-77
Goode, Alexander 96-97
Gratz, Rebecca 30-31
Gratz College 135
Greater Washington Historical
Society 133
Greco Industries 46,132
Hamilton, Phyllis 135
Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati
106-107
Highland Mint 78, 80, 82, 84, 86,
88, 94, 98,104,106
Hillman, Sidney 76-77
Hoffman, Jeffrey 100-101
Holmes, Sherlock 123
Isabella I, Queen of Castile 40
Iskowitz, Joel 1,134
Israel Government Coins and
Medals Corp. (IGCAMC)
32,127
J. Jenkins Sons 54
Janssen, Virginia 114
Jefferson, Thomas 74-75
Jerusalem 128-129
Jewish-American Hall of Fame
4-5, 86-87,115,117,126
Johnson Matthey 34, 36, 38
Jovine, Marcel 124
Kahan, Fred 119
Kaifeng (Over 1,000 Years of
Jewish Life in China) 132
Kennedy, John F. 124
Krinsky, Dana 131
Lamarr, Hedy 104-105
Lazarus, Emma 34-35,135
Lehman, Herbert H. 16-17, !38-i39
Lenya, Lotte 119
Levi Strauss & Co. 27
Levin, Julian 4
Licaretz, Jim 113
Lincoln, Abraham 74, 96-97
MacNeil, Hermon 94
Magnes, Judah L. 6-7,120
146 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
Magnes Collection (UC Berkeley)
134
Magnes Museum 4,108,115,120
Mariaschin, Daniel 4
Medalcraft Mint 56, 58, 6o, 62,
64, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74, 76,
90,96
Medallic Art Co. 6,8,10,12,14,
16,18, 20, 40, 42, 44, 48,
50, 52, 92,100,102,141
Meir, Golda 24-25
Messmer, Andrew 107
Metal Arts 26, 28, 30, 32
Meyers, Meyer 23
Monticello 44-45
Moses 94
NASA 100
National Foundation for Jewish
Culture 125
Noah, Mordecai Manuel 68-69,
92-93
Nobel Prize 36, 60, 91
Peace 124
Pulitzer, Joseph 102-103
Pulitzer Prize 102
Reed, Hal 26, 28-29, 44-45, 52,
55, 62-63,111,118,119,
126
Reimer, Gail Twersky 4
Remember the Eleven (Munich
1972) 121
Resnik, Judith 100
Ries, Victor 6-7,11, 22-23 , 1:L 3
Roger Williams Mint 22,24,32
Rosenthal, Robert "Rosie" 78-79
Ross, Barney 88-89
Russin, Robert 8-9,12-13, 36-37,
112
S. Johnson 123
Salk, Jonas 28-29
Salk Institute 28-29
Salomon, Haym 14-15,131-133
Santangel, Luis de 40
Schatz, Boris 107
Schindler, Oskar 127
Schnier, Jacques 16-17,114
Schwartz, Abby 4,143
Seixas, Gershom Mendes 18-19
Shagin, Alex 37, 60, 64, 66, 68-
69, 72 - 73 , 74 - 75 , in, 117,
121,129,130,133
Shcharansky, Natan (Natan
Sharansky) 121
Shoah 129
Siegel, Richard 4
Singer, Isaac Bashevis 36-37
Smithsonian Institution's Archives
of American Art 11
Sobel, Nat 124
Somogyi, Marika 46-47, 48-49,
56 - 57 , 70-71,112,119,120,
122,123,124,125,126,
127,128,129
Statue of Liberty 34-35,123,135
Stern, Isaac 32-33
Strauss, Levi 26-27
Szold, Henrietta 20-21
Talmud (Quote) 50
Torres, Dara 144-145
Torres, Luis de 54-55
Touro, Judah 22-23
Touro Synagogue 22-23
Truman, Harry 22
U.S. Supreme Court 10,42,94
Vincze, Paul 14, 40-41, 54-55,
112,124,131,132,133
Virginia Holocaust Museum 4,
49,108,114
Wacks, Esther 1
Wacks, Mel 1, 4, 23, 37, 60-61,
62, 66-67, 68, 86-87, 89,
108-109,114,115-117,118,
119,134
Wald, Lillian 82-83
Wallenberg, Raoul 120
Washington, George 22
Weill, Kurt 119
Welsh, Arthur 133
Widow's Mite 130
Wiener, Gerta Ries 10-11,18-19,
20-21, 24-25, 30-31, 32-33,
34-35,111,135
Wise, Isaac Mayer 106-107,136
Wooden Shekels 115-117
World War II Victory 127
Worth, Karen 76-77,113
Yosemite 125
Zacuto, Abraham 40-41
Zweifach, Benjamin 118
Mel Wacks /147
PICTURE CREDITS
All photographs by Mel Wacks, courtesy of the Jewish-American Hall of Fame, except as follows:
Back Stories & About the Medalists, photos and drawings by the respective medalists.
Pg. 5 (bottom), courtesy of Coin World.
Pg. 11 (bottom), drawing by Seymour Fromer.
Pg. 15 (bottom), courtesy of Jewish War Veterans of the U.S.A.
Pg. 17 (top), photo by Andrew Partos.
Pg. 23 (bottom), photo by John T. Hopf.
Pg. 25 (top), courtesy of the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Pg. 27 (top), courtesy of Levi Strauss & Co.
Pg. 28 (bottom), courtesy of The Salk Institute.
Pg. 31 (bottom right), courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Pg. 33 (top), courtesy of the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Pg. 35 (top), courtesy of the American Jewish Historical Society.
Pg. 43 (bottom), courtesy of the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Pg. 50 (bottom), courtesy of Metropolitan Life Co.
Pg. 59 (bottom), courtesy of the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Pg. 61 (bottom right), by unknown photographer.
Pg. 67 (top left), by J. Keiler, courtesy of the Hebrew Publishing Co.
Pg. 73 (top), courtesy of Life Magazine.
Pg. 76, photos courtesy ofwww.laborarts.org.
Pg. 79 (bottom), courtesy of Gil Cohen.
Pg. 81 (top), courtesy of Goudey Big League Chewing Gum.
Pg. 93 (top), courtesy of the Buffalo Historical Society.
Pg. 97 (bottom left), courtesy of the Pentagon.
Pg. 104, photos by Eugene Daub.
Pg. 105 (top), courtesy of the U.S. Patent Office.
Pg. 106, photos by Eugene Daub.
Pg. 107 (bottom), courtesy of Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati.
Pg. 108 (top), photo by Esther Wacks.
Pg. 108 (bottom), photo by Harriet Epstein.
Pg. 109, courtesy of the Board of Supervisors, County of Alameda, State of California.
Pg. 110 (top left), courtesy of Busso Peus Nacht.
Pg. 111 (bottom), photo by Garrett Burke.
Pg. 114 (bottom left), photo by Andrew Partos.
Pg. 114 (bottom right), photo by Esther Wacks.
Pg. 115 (top right), courtesy of the Judah L. Magnes Museum.
Pg. 116 (near bottom left & right), courtesy of the Judah L. Magnes Museum.
Pg. 130 (bottom), photo by Martin Weiss.
Pg. 141 (top), courtesy of the Cincinnati Skirball Museum.
Pg. 141 (bottom), photo by Shari Wacks.
148 / Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals
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